The Capital Market reached the above decision after detecting a violation of multiple provisions of the Investment Law
The imposition of a fine of one million euros (€1,000,000) on the Cyprus Investment Services Company, Itrade Global (Cy) Ltd has been announced by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (EKK ).
The Greek Greek Cypriot Greek Cycladic Society came to the above decision after detecting a violation of multiple provisions of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017 by the Company. Specifically, among other things, Itrade Global failed to implement policies and procedures to monitor the activities of its affiliated agent in Spain when acting on its behalf. The Law provides that CIFs remain fully and unconditionally liable for any act or omission on the part of their affiliated representatives when they act on their behalf.
CySEC found that the Company through its affiliated agent did not take appropriate measures to identify and avoid or manage the conflict of interest, did not act fairly, honestly and professionally when providing investment services to clients and did not ensure that all information addressed to customers was accurate, clear and not misleading.
CySEC found that Itrade Global through its affiliated agent failed to ensure that natural persons who provide information on financial instruments, investment services or ancillary services to clients on behalf of the Company have the required knowledge and skills to fulfill their obligations based on the law. In addition, the Company did not ask customers to provide all necessary information about their knowledge and experience in order to assess whether the offered product or service is suitable (“compatible” under the law) for them. The CYC also found violations by the Company in relation to the articles of the Law concerning the compliance function, the product approval process and its obligation to keep records of telephone conversations.
The CYC would like to express its thanks to the Capital Market Commission of Spain (National Securities Market Commission – CNMV) for its assistance.
The President of YKK Dr. Giorgos Theocharidis, stated:
“CYC takes seriously any illegal practice by supervised entities and is determined to stop activities that do not comply with the framework of existing legislation, strengthening investor protection and responsible development of the investment sector.
CIFs are required to ensure that they fully comply with their regulatory obligations, emphasizing the strengthening of their compliance function and the re-evaluation of the capabilities of their staff, particularly the staff of sales and marketing functions . A strong commitment of CySEC is the responsible development of the investment sector, which is based on strict supervision to ensure the protection of investors.”
