The Financial Conduct Authority has prohibited a Cyprus-based investment firm from conducting any regulated activity in the UK.
Finteractive Limited, which trades as FXVC, offered high risk contracts for difference (CFDs) to UK investors.
But according to the regulator, the company used a “variety of inappropriate techniques”, such as misleading financial promotions offering clients to purchase shares of a well-known company, when it was actually promoting the sale of CFDs.
Many of FXVC’s customers were not made aware of the nature of their investments and of the risk involving such products.
The Cypriot company used pressure tactics, which some clients described as “relentless” the watchdog said, to encourage consumers to keep investing bigger sums of money.
Some clients were even encouraged to claim they were professional investors even though they did not meet the criteria to qualify as such, the FCA added.
This resulted in the regulator stopping FXVC from conducting any regulated activity in the UK and required it to close all trading positions and refund their customers.
The company operates in the UK under the Temporary Permission Regime (TPR) which was put in place as an alternative to passporting rules which applied before Brexit. The regime allows EU-based firms to continue working in the UK after the exit from the Union, until their application for full FCA authorisation can be considered.
