Cyprus is perhaps the most popular jurisdiction for licensing binary options retail brokers, especially within the EU, and the country’s industry watchdog and regulator, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), has in the past been accused of being too lenient with the firms it supervises. More recently however, through a series of decisions, administrative fines, license suspensions and most importantly a new and tougher regulatory framework with several changes particularly concerning the field of retail binary options trading, the CySEC has stepped up its gear and it is breathing heavily on the neck of Cyprus Investment Firms (CIFs) in its efforts to ensure that the firms operate in accordance to all rules and that the trader-clients are effectively protected.
Many welcomed the toughening of the stance of CySEC arguing that it would gradually lead to a consolidation in the industry, pushing out the smaller fish or the brokers that would be unable or unwilling to comply with the stricter rules, thus allowing to survive only those who mean serious business. A latest development seems to be confirming this prediction as CIF Pegase Capital has, according to a CySEC announcement, decided to renounce its authorization as a Cyprus Investment firm as of 13th May 2016.
Pegase Capital is the parent company of binary options brokerage brands Interactive Option, HelloBrokers, and MTX Plus and it provided provided investment services via the domains www.interactiveoption.com, www.interactive-option.com, www.hellobrokers.com, www.mtxplus.com, www.pegasecapital.com. According to the same CySEC announcement as from 13 May 2016, Pegase’s authorization with Νumber 067/06 has lapsed and the company is now obliged to settle within a period of three month its obligations arising from the investment services that also lapsed.
Moreover, CySec pointed out that Pegase Capital Ltd remains under its supervision until it settles its obligations arising from the investment services or/and activities that lapsed, while it has also requested from Pegase to proceed with changes in its website and/or in any other website so that, any references regarding authorization and supervision of the Company by CySec, be removed.
It is interesting to note that before deciding to eventually relinquish its license, Pegase was fined by CySEC last year with a hefty fine and then had its license suspended by the watchdog originally in March this year and then extended into April. Moreover, this company seems to have attracted the attention of other regulators as well, since it was recently named on Russia’s KROUFR Black List, while it was also added to the Investment Caution List of the watchdog in the Canadian Province of British Columbia.
