Regulator Issues Warning on Fake Versions of Leading Retail Trading Brands

Even though financial market regulators try their best to stop unlicensed investment firms, their fight seems endless. The Spanish CNMV has reported that scammers are once again pretending to be popular retail trading brands.

The latest warning list also shows several companies working in the country without proper licenses.

Financial Regulators Seek To Protect Investors From Fraudulent Activities

Today (Monday), the CNMV, the Spanish financial markets regulator, announced that it has added ten new entities to its warning list.

Among them, “Finance IG,” which provides services through the websites financeig.com and finance-ig.com, is notable for being a copy of the well-known London-based firm IG Group. This firm is recognized across Europe and worldwide.

The warning list also includes a copy of the US-based firm StoneX, which offers services via the website stonexly.com/es. Sadly, there are often attempts to pretend to be well-known brands. A few months ago, CNMV also cautioned about a company pretending to be the popular social trading platform eToro.

According to a survey, retail traders see cloned brokers and signal providers as the biggest problem in the industry. But talking to representatives of often-copied firms shows that it’s hard to stop this practice because it happens so often.

In addition to the two clones highlighted by CNMV, the update also includes eight companies operating without proper authorization in the Spanish market. These include Trader Experts, TCM Globals, Aduent Capital, Aduent Capital, AMI Solutions, Rumlenomic, TD Markets, and Fusionlots.

Financial Regulators Wants To Foster Transparency In Financial Sector

CNMV stated that these institutions are not listed in their records and are not allowed to offer investment services or other activities under CNMV supervision.

In an update to the Spanish regulator’s warning list from last month, a report revealed that CNMV was investigating 8 FX/CFD brokers that were not registered.

Recently, CNMV also started looking into Linq Capital, which offers trading with very high leverage up to 1000:1. The company claims to operate in the UK, but the city it claims to be in does not actually exist. A few months ago, the German BaFin also flagged its suspicious activities.

Additionally, Belgium’s financial markets regulator also added to the warning list nearly 40 new entities that could be fraudulent. These include websites offering cryptocurrencies, FX/CFD trading, and investment bots. Notably, there are copies of two well-known brands: banking giant BNP Paribas and publicly listed broker CMC Markets.