CONSOB raises alarm over AlphaFX Prime, BB360 and Titan CFD
Italy’s Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) has shut down new websites in an ongoing clampdown against firms it accuses of illegally promoting investment products in the country.
The financial regulator stepped in to warn the public about dealing with several companies, which include some FX platforms that mostly operate offshore without a specific regulatory status.
Specifically, Consob has ordered the black-out of 6 new websites that offer financial services/financial products, including 5 illegal broker domains. As a result, the number of sites blacked out since July 2019, when Consob got the power to ban the websites of financial intermediaries it deems unregulated, has risen to 774.
The watchdog added the following brands to its register of banned internet sources for illegally promoting trading products in the country.
– PX Fintech Limited (website www.first-tradecfd.com and related pages https://my.first-tradecfd.com and https://webtrader.first-tradecfd.com);
– “Alphafxprime” (website https://www.alphaprimefx.co);
– “Titancfd” (website www.titan-cfd.com and related page https://platform.titan-cfd.com);
– “BB360.market EU Limited” (website https://bb360.market);
– “Winnex Consulting” (website www.winnexconsulting.com and related page https://client.winnexconsulting.com);
– Uefa Football Fund Ltd (Internet website https://uefa2017.com and related page https://www.2016uefa.com)
A glimpse at the websites of the brokers added out by the Italian financial regulator shows a well-known tactic to attract inexperienced clients to trade highly leveraged products.
Alphafx Prime is offering bonus schemes for their clients to the tune of 100 percent of their deposits. With the usual draconian conditions required to withdraw funds from the account once a bonus is applied, the end-result for such tactics are usually disgruntled clients who have withdrawal issues. With the Forex brokerage industry in the developed world being forced to halt any such practices, offshore jurisdictions remain tolerant of bonus schemes.
One of the latest additions to Consob’s warning list is Titan Trade which has been offering its services via www.titan-cfd.com. Investors have been asked to exercise caution when dealing with the three companies associated with Titan Trade’s website. These include Titan Trade Capital Limited, Dom Technology Services Ltd and Titan Trade Solutions Ltd, none of which are authorised to offer investment services in Italy, online or otherwise.
Titan Trade has raised regulatory concerns on several prior occasions. Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) issued a warning that Titan Trade was not authorised to target Ontario investors. In addition, France’s financial market regulator also included Titan Trade in its periodically updated list of websites that offer binary options trading, for which no authorised investment services provider could be identified.
