CySEC claims that BDSwiss Holding Ltd redirected customers to other unregulated entities. CySEC charged €100,000 for the breach.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) recently announced the imposition of an administrative penalty of €100,000 on BDSwiss Holding Ltd, BDSwiss' forex brokerage and contracts for difference (CFD) operator. This regulator highlights that BDSwiss had redirected customers to an unregulated offshore entity.

CySEC explicitly reports that BDSwiss Holding Ltd enables offshore companies associated with it, using its status as a Cypriot Investment Firm (CIF), to attract clients to other brokers offering investment services in CFDs without initial margin protection and risk warning. As such, this broker avoids imposing the legal requirements of CIF regulators.

"BDSwiss Group plays on the fact that one of its companies is regulated in the UK to convey legitimacy to the group as a whole," said CySEC. We found 99% of BDSwiss consumers in the UK joined a group entity without concrete rules.

BDSwiss

Based on the CySEC report, BDSwiss violated Article 42, paragraph 5 DI87-09 Regulation (EU) 600/2014. The €100,000 penalty was for BDSwiss violations related to the financial service offering that did not require payment of initial margin protection and risk warning according to its terms.

Also, This is not the first time BDSwiss has received customer alerts in its operations. In 2021, FCA UK disclosed that many UK clients were part of a group of regulators from different territories. In particular, foreign companies do not comply with FCA restrictions on marketing and selling CFDs to retail customers.