<p>The Cyprus
Securities and Exchange Commission, <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/c/cysec/” class=”terms__main-term” id=”37d97d82-59f8-4ce2-94d2-21c5bdc82663″ target=”_blank”>CySEC</a>, has withdrawn the Investor
Compensation Fund (ICF) membership from the three ex-Cyprus Investment Firms
(CIFs), including Inveza Capital Ltd, F1Markets Ltd and FF Simple and Smart
Trades Investment Services Ltd.</p><p>CySEC Withdraws Investors’
Compensation Fund Membership of Three Companies</p><p><a href=”https://www.cysec.gov.cy/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=cef89c90-1f81-40cb-bb14-f54477b53f1e” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>According
</a>to the CySEC press release published on Monday, the Investors Compensation Fund
has removed three firms providing services to retail investors from its list of
members. Earlier, the CIF licenses of all of them were withdrawn.</p><p><a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/inveza-capital-ltd-expressly-renounces-cysec-license/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>Inveza
Capital</a> has decided to ‘expressly renounce’ its license in December 2022, CySEC
officially announced over a month ago. A few days earlier, it reported a
similar decision by <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/brokers/cysec-withdraws-license-of-fxcfds-brokerage-operator-f1markets/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>F1Markets Ltd</a> and <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/cysec-withdraws-license-of-tradocenter-and-toro-invest-operator/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>FF Simple and Smart Trades Investment
Services Ltd</a>. </p><p>”The
loss of ICF membership status does not mean loss of rights of covered clients
to receive compensation in relation to investment operations carried out until
the loss of membership status, if the conditions for compensation are fulfilled
pursuant to the Directive, nor does it obstruct the initiation of the
compensation procedure for covered clients,” CySEC commented in the
written statement.</p><p>Inveza,
which provided investment services through its website inveza.com, has been a
CySEC-regulated entity since 2013. It previously operated under the names NFX
Capital Cy Ltd and Vinst Capital Limited. Meanwhile, FF Simple and Smart Trades
Investment Services controlled at least two brands, Toro Invest and TradoCenter,
offering margin trading to retail and professional clients.</p><p>F1Markets and
Controversial Conduct</p><p>F1Markets
also operated several different brokerage brands, including Investous, 24CM and
EuroPrime. However, the activities of this particular broker were not without
controversy. Its services were <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/cysec-suspends-24option-tradeatf-magnum-fx-and-f1markets-on-fca-request/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>flagged multiple times</a> for compliance lapses,
and the company has faced enforcement actions.</p><p>In August
last year, F1Markets settled with the Cypriot regulator, <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/regulation/cysec-settles-with-f1-markets-and-magnum-fx-cyprus-paid-150k-each/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>paying €150,000</a> for
multiple potential breaches of local regulations, following a regulatory
assessment of the company’s compliance efforts to meet the terms of its partial
suspension and other corrective actions taken between June 2019 and July 2020.</p><p>CySEC
Reviews 2022 </p><p>The Cypriot
financial market watchdog has <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/cysec-supervised-837-entities-and-imposed-29-million-fines-in-2022/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>summarized the previous year</a> and announced that
it supervised 837 regulated entities at the end of 2022. Furthermore, the
regulatory body disclosed that it will extend its supervisory scope to include
<a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/terms/c/crowdfunding/” class=”terms__secondary-term” id=”123c62c4-dab0-4489-b3e1-9961cb08abb5″ target=”_blank”>crowdfunding</a> service providers and personal pension products.</p><p>The number of
regulated firms grew by 3.9% compared to 806 in 2021. Moreover, CySEC has
around 100 new license applications under consideration, marking a 12% increase
from 2019 figures before the Covid-19 outbreak.</p><p>The report
stated that in 2022, CySEC granted licenses to 86 entities across different
supervised categories. However, the regulatory body rejected six applications
for CIFs licenses, and an additional 15 applications were withdrawn, comprising
both CIF and collective investment license applications.</p><p>The
Supervision Department of CySEC carried out various reviews, including 359
remote, thematic, and on-site inspections on CIFs in 2022. During this period,
the department also monitored compliance with the reporting transaction and
derivatives contracts regulations.</p><p>CySEC also
bets on education to improve investors’ understanding of market risks and
increase their confidence in making independent investment decisions. A recent
study conducted by CySEC <a href=”https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/cysec-finds-31-of-retail-investors-rely-on-finfluencers/” target=”_blank” rel=”follow”>found that</a> a significant number of investors (33%)
depend on financial influencers’ (finfluencers) recommendations to make their
investment decisions. The survey also revealed that 26% of investors in Cyprus
had invested more than they could afford to lose.</p>
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
