A little too late: Belgium’s FSMA addresses clients of Banc de Binary

Maria Nikolova

A month after the renouncement of Banc de Binary’s license in Cyprus got into effect, the Belgian regulator decided to inform investors that they have to contact what is now a defunct company.

Whereas the fight against binary options fraud gathers speed in some jurisdictions, forcing illegally operating entities to cut and run, elsewhere the clumsiness and reluctance of certain regulatory bodies is apparent.

Belgium is an interesting case. In August last year, following proposed regulatory changes by the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), Belgium outlawed certain high-risk derivatives and binary options. The Belgian financial regulator had been warning against binary options brokers long before that but the August 2016 changes marked a decisive move on part of the nation’s authorities.

That is why FSMA’s announcement dated February 15, 2017 has struck us a bit – the regulator informs the public that Banc de Binary has renounced its license in Cyprus. This happens a whole month after the renouncement took effect. So much for good timing.

The FSMA advises clients of the broker to contact it “as soon as possible”, which is a bit ironic, given the delay the Belgian regulator afforded to itself to inform clients of the broker about what happened. In terms of contacts, the Belgian regulator provides the postal address of Banc de Binary in St. Vincent & Grenadines, instead of the address in Cyprus (sic!). How responsive the broker will be is uncertain, given that the link to file a withdrawal request on eu.bancdebinary.com is redirecting to the front page, that is, it is of no use.

The announcement by the Belgian regulator is almost identical to that published by France’s financial markets regulator AMF about two weeks earlier. The French regulator also urged investors to contact the broker via mail and demand return of funds. That announcement was also a little too late.

The announcements by FSMA and AMF underline loopholes in binary options oversight and indicate that there is much more to demand regarding international co-operation between regulators.

Of course, let’s not forget that regulators have limited powers when it comes to stopping binary options fraud, as Italy’s CONSOB reiterated recently. EUROPOL’s involvement in the fight is set to mark some progress in this respect, as the agency may prosecute employees of binary options firms, including sales guys who use aggressive techniques to solicit money from investors.

Read this next

Retail FX

Prop firm The Funded Trader shuts down, claims relaunch in April

Prop trading firm The Funded Trader has ceased all operations, with claims for a relaunch in the near future.

Digital Assets

Ethereum-Based Tokenized Real Estate Platform USP Launches On Republic

How This Californian Startup Is Revolutionizing Real Estate Investment through Ethereum-Based Tokenization.

Digital Assets

Sui Spikes in Weekly DEX Volume, Joins Top 10 of All Blockchains

March DEX volume on Sui stands at over $2.88B – up more than 49% from February – with decentralized exchange Cetus and wholesale liquidity layer DeepBook leading.

Digital Assets

Prisma Finance suffers $10 million crypto exploit, attack ongoing

Liquid staking protocol Prisma Finance fell victim to a security exploit on March 28, resulting in nearly $10 million in Prisma mkUSD and wrapped stETH being stolen by hackers.

Digital Assets

Masa and LayerZero: Bridging Blockchains for Data Sovereignty

Masa Network is poised to revolutionize the personal data landscape with its upcoming launch as a cross-chain platform, making it accessible on a variety of blockchains right from the start.

Digital Assets

Big Time Generates over $100M in Revenue since Preseason

Innovative game developer Big Time Studios announces that its highly anticipated free-to-play multiplayer action/MMO RPG Big Time, has generated $100M in revenue. According to the team, players transacted a total volume of over $230M, without selling a single token.

Digital Assets

Centralized exchanges are 10 times more popular than DEXs in Western Europe

Western European traders are found to prefer centralized exchanges over decentralized ones as CEX traffic outpaces DEXs by a factor of ten.

Market News

Stock Market Analysis: Is NVDA Losing Its Leadership?

Since the beginning of the week, the S&P 500 Index (US500) has seen a modest increase of about 0.58%, whereas NVDA’s share price has experienced a decline of approximately 3.8%. This recent divergence raises concerns among Nvidia stock investors — could it signify a loss of NVDA’s market leadership?

Industry News

ESG: Australian regulator wins first greenwashing court case against Vanguard

Vanguard admitted that a notable portion of the securities within both the Index and the Fund did not undergo the promised ESG scrutiny.

<