Unlike in other countries, in Canada the regulation and licensing of financial services companies is not managed at a national level, but is left to authorities at the level of each province. In essence, this means that in order to be allowed to target the residents of a specific Canadian province each financial services entity needs to register and obtain the relevant license from the watchdog in the specific province they wish to operate in.
Often brokers fail to do so and this in turn leads the authorities in each province to issue warnings against brokers who target their residents without having the necessary permissions to do so. Within this framework, two provincial regulators in Canada, namely the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) have just issued warnings to inform investors and the public about unregistered firms offering trading services in forex and binary options.
More specifically, in the latest updating of its Warning List, which contains the names of individuals and companies which are engaging in activities that may pose a risk to investors, the OSC has added retail forex broker Sumo Forex Limited, operating via the website www.sumoforex.com, which has its listed offices at 28 Queen Street, 4th Floor, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.
According to the OSC, Sumo Forex Limited is not registered in Ontario, Canada to engage in the business of trading in securities or advising anyone with respect to investing in, buying or selling securities.
Moreover, the OSC has also added the company Depix Holdings Limited to its Warning list, which is operating the binary options broker LBinary, via the domain name www.lbinary.com. This company is situated in Limassol, Cyprus. The warning also states that this entity is not registered to offer its services in Ontario.
In British Columbia, the province’s BCSC has also issued a public warning informing the public that it “recently became aware of an advertisement placed by Smart FX Online, (www.smartfxonline.com), which purports to have an office in Seattle, Washington, and offers a service to trade investors’ money in forex.”
In its warning, the BCSC informs that, Smart FX Online is not registered to trade in, or advise on, securities or exchange contracts in British Columbia (BC).
Finally, the BCSC once again urges the residents in its province to exercise caution when dealing with firms that are not registered to trade or advise in BC.
