A surprising and unexpected news came from forex broker Armada Markets this week. The Estonia-headquartered broker apparently decided to quit offering forex trading for retail clients starting from 2015 and move on to focus on the institutional segment.
A surprising and unexpected news came from forex broker Armada Markets this week. The Estonia-headquartered broker apparently decided to quit offering forex trading for retail clients starting from 2015 and move on to focus on institutional clients (banks, brokers, and hedge funds).
Armada Markets' retail clients reportedly have been moved to a newly registered forex broker, Tickmill, from January 1st. A Seychelles Financisal Services Authority (FSA)-regulated broker, Tickmill seemed to have just been established specifically to provide similar services with Armada Markets. An announcement by Armada Markets stated, Trading conditions and systems, ECN liquidity, quality of customer service and support stay the same and Tickmill’s team will work hard to improve services even further. You will keep the same account login credentials and use the same MetaTrader 4 terminal. So you continue trading as usual!
Previously, Forex Magnates reported that Armada Markets was kicked off from Poland after Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) listed the company as an unauthorized firm in September 2014. Before that, the company has also been warned by Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) as they actually are not regulated in Estonia despite being based in the country.
Well, from this point on is just speculation, but the problem here might be that they seek clients in the European Union although they hold no licenses to operate in the area (Poland and Estonia being a part of the EU). FYI, forex brokers can offer services in the EU as long as they have been regulated by a regulator that operates under EU's MIFID passport agreement. So it might be that Armada Markets is actually unauthorized to offer services and then took the alternative by transferring their clients to Tickmill. The real story behind the door might be more explosive, but for now we will wait and see whether Armada Markets move to shift clients to Tickmill will work well, since Seychelles, a tiny island country in African offshore, is not an EU country and its FSA is not covered under MIFID.