The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning against ICMarkets and its offshore entity Ray Trading Ltd in Seychelles. The company bears a similar name to the popular retail brokerage brand in Australia, and the U.K. regulator is flagging the cloned firm for offering services without the required approval.
According to the UK agency, the company is imitating IC Markets, which is not legally allowed by the regulator.
The FCA Has Shared Domains Linked To The Fake Company
In line with the notice, the watchdog has shared the company’s domains, two telephone numbers, and four email addresses linked to the clone company.
The emails are linked to the domain icmarkets.com, which is not run or operated by the original IC Markets platform. Other domains red-flagged by the regulator include ic-forexmarket.com, icmarketpro.com, icm-market.com, and i-cmarketz.com.
These domains look very similar to the genuine domain which uses the domain name www.icmarkets.com.
As a result, the FCA has shared the details of the fake domains to warn people who may believe they are dealing with the genuine IC Markets.
“We believe this firm [the clone] may be providing financial services or products in the UK without our authorization,” the FCA added.
The FCA Says The Firm Does Not Have An Operational License
The regulator warned that the company does not have any authorization to operate in the U.K. those that do business with the fake firm will not be protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This means there is no assurance that investors will get their funds back if things go wrong.
The genuine firm, IC Markets, was launched in 2007. It has licenses from several jurisdictions, including in Seychelles, Cyprus, the Bahamas, and Australia. It does not have any operational license in the U.K.
However, the broker’s license within the European Economic Area from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has allowed it to sell its services in the U.S. After Brexit, IC Markets was given temporary permission by the FCA to operate in the U.K.
It’s one of the few brokerage firms with operational licenses across major jurisdictions. It’s also one of the few brokers that regularly hit $1 trillion in monthly trading volume. The size of the broker also makes it a target for fraudulent-minded individuals looking to impersonate the firm and deceive gullible investors.
