List of Companies Operating Unlawfully in Belgium

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has, on several occasions, warned the public against the activities of various providers of/intermediaries in binary options and forex products, “recovery rooms” and “boiler rooms”, all operating unlawfully.

As mentioned in these warnings, the providers/intermediaries/boiler rooms in question are not authorized investment firms or credit institutions in Belgium. They are therefore not allowed to provide banking and/or investment services in or from Belgium. Furthermore, they have not published, where applicable, a prospectus approved by the FSMA, as is required before any public offering of investment instruments may be made within the territory of Belgium.

It should be specified that at this stage, no offer of binary options fulfils the requirements of Belgian legislation.

As regards “recovery room”-type fraud, despite the promises made by the persons offering this service, the fees charged do not result in the victims recovering the lost funds, and the sums paid in the process by the client are thus also lost.

The list below comprises all providers of/intermediaries in binary options, forex products, CFDs and other derivatives, “recovery rooms” and boiler rooms that have been the subject of a warning published by the FSMA since 2013. It also names the holders of the bank accounts used by those companies. The names indicated in bold are those of the new companies added to the list following the latest set of published warnings and/or following new information received by the FSMA about companies that have already been the subject of a warning by the FSMA.

Please note that the fact that no warning has been published about a given company does not automatically mean that the latter company holds the authorization necessary to operate in Belgium. In spite of the FSMA’s efforts to publish warnings in a timely manner, it is not impossible that a company may be operating unlawfully even though no warning has been published. As a result, this list cannot be considered exhaustive, and investors are always advised to check if a company that is offering a financial service holds the requisite authorization by consulting the lists of persons authorized to provide regulated financial services, published on the FSMA’s website under the tab “financial service providers”.

* = companies offering binary options / forex products / CFD / other derivatives

** = boiler rooms

*** = recovery rooms