UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning that the forex broker XMarkets is not licensed to offer its services in the UK.
“This firm is not authorised by us and is targeting people in the UK. Based upon information we hold, we believe it is carrying on regulated activities which require authorization,” the FCA said, advising investors to only deal with authorized companies.
XMarkets claims it is a “forex and fixed return options provider” operated by Capital Force Ltd., registered in the Republic of Samoa. The island nation is not known as an offshore zone, but the local financial sector is fairly unregulated, which makes Samoa an attractive location for some financial services providers.
XMarkets also says it is an innovative and dynamic company that offers “the best trading conditions”, “robust security” and keeps client funds in segregated accounts. We tried to check whether the trading conditions are favorable, but could not find them anywhere, unless we register for an account, providing personal information and a phone number.
Like FCA, we also strongly advise the potential investors to avoid dealing with unregulated companies. Sometimes they are a scam, sometimes they are not, but either way, they do not offer any customer protection in case something goes wrong. On the other hand, the largest and most reputable forex brokers are regulated by FCA, which provides robust oversight and has strict requirements.