The FCA Has Flagged These Brokers. What This Means for You
The following is a regularly updated list of brokers that have been flagged by the FCA, the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom. One of the most important steps you can take to ensure safe online trading is to research financial services and brokers thoroughly before entrusting your money with them. These broker reviews are intended as a tool to help you in your research.
Too often, would-be traders get excited about a deal advertised on social media or an advertisement. They feel they may lose out if they don’t invest funds immediately. This can lead to hasty decision making and significant losses.
It can be difficult, in some cases, to distinguish a scam broker from a genuine, legitimate one. That’s why it’s important to know what regulators are saying about online brokers. Rather than going to each individual regulator’s site, Broker Complaint Registry has collected all of the warnings you need to know about in one place and update the lists with new brokers as fresh warnings are released.
About the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
The FCA or the Financial Conduct Authority is one of the most highly respected financial regulators in the world. Every financial service, whether they are brokers or car financing companies, that operate in the UK or have UK customers must be licensed by the FCA.
Although the Financial Conduct Authority is a financial regulatory body in the UK, it operates independently of the British government and generates revenue through fees from its licensees. The FCA has many duties, including:
- Ensuring compliance with financial regulations and standards
- Oversees anti-money laundering efforts
- Protects UK consumers with information and red flags about suspected fraud
- Ensures fair competition in the marketplace
- Issues licensees to qualified companies and audits and oversees their operations
- Receives and follows up on customer complaints
Why Were These Brokers Flagged by the FCA?
If you see a broker on this list, it’s best not to take a chance and trade with them. However, if you want to find out more, read the reviews thoroughly for further information.
The FCA will issue a warning about a broker or financial service for the following, and more, reasons:
- Unlicensed
- False claims
- Clone broker
- Non-compliance
- Numerous customer complaints
- Legal action against the broker
The majority of FCA warnings are about financial services that provide services (or seem to) without a license. This is a serious infraction, but many consumers don’t think to check the license of a broker or take their statements about licensing at face value.
Often, unlicensed brokers will also make false claims about what kind of returns they can offer customers or about their credentials. Others may be clone brokers, in other words, imposters who adopt a name similar to a licensed broker to deceive the public.
A broker may be flagged for non-compliance with regulations or if they are an FCA licensee, not reporting their financials. Although unjust complaints happen often on the internet, if a broker has received a steady number of consistent and credible complaints, to the regulator and not on just a review site, they are likely to be flagged. The FCA will also notify the public if a broker is facing legal action, has become insolvent or has had a cease and desist order filed against it.