Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The Financial Services Commission (IFSC) of Belize has issued a warning notice against Profitable FX EA, a forex brokerage that falsely represents itself as being license and regulated by the IFSC.
The regulator referred to the broker’s claims that it holds a IFSC license as being “a complete forgery”. It warned investors to take extreme caution when dealing with unauthorized entities and trusting them their money.
Belize is known as an offshore destination and is renowned for its milder regulation and licensing requirements and lower incorporation costs. Recently, the IFSC increased significantly the annual license fees and the minimum capital requirement for forex brokers to $25,000 and $500,000, respectively, but it still remains one of the countries with the lowest such 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. Nevertheless, a broker license is attractive to traders as it brings them a feeling of confidence and security when choosing a broker.
Profitable FX EA represents, according to its website, a piece of automated forex trading software that automates trading decisions. The solution works well across all forex pairs. Hense, the EA at the end of the broker’s name, which stands for expert advisor.
On its website, the broker presents an IFSC license that obviously seems fake. The Belizean regulator’s genuine licenses are valid for a single year and Profitable FX EA’s license, which the broker claims was issued in January this year, is valid until the end of 2021.
The broker has also published a document for what it calls a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) authorization issued by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), which presumebly allows it to provide financial and ancillary services. However, the firm is missing from the CySEC’s list of licensed financial service providers.
Source: IFSC