Russian online forex broker CityTrade has temporarily closed its offices and its website, www.citytrade.ru, but both are expected to resume operations on 1 February 2016, according to a notice on its website.
Resumption of the site and offices is planned on 1 February, the notice read, without providing the reason for the closure. Whether the broker will indeed resume its business is not known.
The Financial Commission, a Russian external dispute resolution (EDR) organization, has said, as cited on Wednesday by online finance news provider Finance Magnates, that it has received complaints against City Trade. The commission has 11 members, but City Trade is not one of them.
The broker has been fount guilty of forgery on various instances, including fortifying documents and promising traders a guaranteed return on their investments.
Just a day before its website went down, City Trade had posted a number of presumably fake certificates, including one allegedly issued by the Financial Commission. On one instance, the broker had provided on its website a license said to be issued by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), but when examined closely the document read it was issued in Mauritius. All this brings up a question about the authenticity of the certificates.
Investors claim the broker has disappeared shortly after they have transferred funds to its bank. City Trade operated 14 offices throughout Russia prior to their closure.
Regulation of the Russian forex was introduced recently. Following law amendments made last year, Russian forex brokers are no longer allowed to operate without a license from the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) as of 1 January, 2016. However, foreign brokers still can target Russian investors even without authorization.
So far Finam Forex, part of the Finam group, is the only Russian licensed broker. However, at least three other brokers – Alpari, TeleTrade and Forex Club have said they applied for a license to continue operating in the country, but so far no data has been provided regarding the status of their licenses.
We strongly advise you to only deal with regulated forex brokers, authorized by reputable regulatory bodies like CySec, FCA, and CFTC/NFA, among others.
Source: City Trade
