Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
Italy’s National Commission for Companies and the Stock Exchange (CONSOB) issued on Monday a warning against Markets Capital Ltd., operater of offshore binary options brand PayDay Option, and multi-asset investment company Hansa Equity Spa for providing financial services without obtaining the required authorization.
Neither of the companies is authorized to provide financial services or do business in Italy, the CONSOB noted.
Markets Capital operated via the website www.paydayoption.com. The broker is based in the Marshall Islands and provides no authorization information on its website. It offers trading in binary options on more than 70 assets – currencies, commodities, stocks and indices, with expiration starting from several seconds to up to 12 month. Four types of binaries are available at a minimum deposit requirement of $200. The payout rate reaches 91% of the investment amount. The broker has partnership programs for introducing brokers (IBs) and affiliate assistants.
Hansa Equity, on the other hand, is based in Italy and does business via www.hansa-equity.com. It offers wealth management and financial portfolio management services. Its operations cover the financial markets in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
In a separate notice, the CONSOB brought the attention of investors that some other EU regulatory bodies have issued warnings about other financial entities that could potentially hurt investors. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned against Tokyo-based Hayashi and Partners, aka Hayashi International Equity Securities, which provides different investment services via www.hayashiandpartners.com. Meanwhile Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority(FSA) has warned against Gkfx Financial Services Ltd. Sp. z o.o., and the Central Bank of Ireland has issued notices against Colbert & Welling Llp and Drakefield Corporate Partners. All these offered financial services in the respective countries without being authorized to do so.
In Italy, as in any other EU member, financial intermediaries, including forex and binary options brokers, are not allowed to operate without the proper authorization from the local authorities or the relevant regulator of any other EU country. If a broker is licensed in any EU member state, the license allows it to provide services in the rest of the union.
When engaging with unauthorized and non-regulated brokers, traders are putting their investments at higher risk. We strongly advise you to only deal with regulated forex brokers, authorized by reputable regulatory bodies like CySEC, FCA, and CFTC/NFA, among others.
