The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has issued an announcement today highlighting that it is suspending the license of Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) AirFinance Pro Ltd. The company’s authorization will be taken away for a month pending further action by the regulator.
AirFinance Pro Ltd has been the operator behind a number of binary options brands including Porto F.C. sponsor Buzztrade, CFD Royal, Investing Area and Uptrade7. The license of the company is suspended on the grounds of possible non compliance with the regulatory framework in Cyprus.
The section highlighted by the regulator as being potentially violated is 28 (1), which relates to the obligations of the company to comply with the regulations at all times.
CySEC’s decision is also putting in jeopardy a key marketing expense for the Buzztrade brand which is sponsoring Portuguese football club Porto.
According to CySEC: “The aforementioned alleged violations may possibly endanger the Company’s clients’ interests or the investor interests or generally the regular operation of the capital market as the Company has not been compliant with its reporting/filing obligation towards CySEC.”
While the license of the company operating binary options brokerages Buzztrade, CFD Royal, Investing Area and Uptrade7 is suspended for one month, the firm’s clients are entitled to close all of their open positions on their maturity date or on an earlier date. Also the operator of the above mentioned brands must return the client funds and profits earned to all of its customers that are willing to withdraw.
CySEC has given the company one month to comply with the aforementioned provisions or face a complete revocation of its license. While the suspension is in place Buzztrade, CFD Royal, Investing Area and Uptrade7 are not allowed to onboard new clients, cannot receive, transmit or execute any orders from existing clients for buying any financial instruments and cannot operate in any jurisdiction regardless of whether it is a regulated one or not.
In addition the firm is barred from advertising itself as an investment services provider and make advertising campaigns and announcements and must upload on all of its websites that its CIF license has been suspended.
