Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The International Financial Services Commission (IFSC) of Belize issued on Tuesday a warning notice against ATS Markets Global, trading as ATS Markets, calling its regulation claims “a complete forgery”.
The broker false claims it is registered in Belize and has published on its website, www.ats-markets.com, a fake certificate of incorporation it claims to be issued by the IFSC. The regulator said ATS Markets is neither registered, nor licensed by the IFSC or any other authority in the country and is not allowed to provide trading services there.
ATS Markets, a brand of ATS Markets Global Ltd., is a market maker that offers trading in forex, contracts for difference (CFDs), binary options, metals and energies. It claims to be headquartered both in Belize and in the UK and registered in Belize under number 152,302. The broker claims to have global registrations and regulation, without defining what it means.
It provides partner programs for introducing brokers, web affiliates, and local representatives.
Belize is known as an offshore destination thanks to its mild regulation and licensing requirements and lower incorporation costs. The minimum initial capital requirement for IFSC-licensed forex brokers was recently hiked to $500,000, making the country a leader in terms of lower capital requirements.
Many forex brokers choose to register in Belize and fall under the supervision of the IFSC since they need to meet fewer and softer criteria and to comply with less strict rules and requirements than if they registered in other countries. The IFSC rather relies on self-regulation by the companies, but it is not uncommon for it to post warnings against entities that claim to fall under its regulation.
Source: IFSC
