Beware! Bank ADS is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
If you are looking for an exciting and inspiring website to join in, let us tell you that the Bank ADS’s site is not one of those. Everything looks hastily done and boring. So, let us look at some key features and decide how safe it is to trade with this broker.
Bank ADS Regulation and safety of funds
When selecting a forex broker to trade with, the first thing you should look at is whether it is licensed. We find in the Terms and Conditions document that AIG Titan Holdings Limited from the Marshall Islands is the owner of the website. We must tell you right away that this jurisdiction is an offshore zone and what’s more, there is no financial regulator for forex brokers. It also means that the owner of this site can be from any jurisdiction from around the world as in the Marshall Islands it is possible to register a company on the internet. So, we must be very cautious because we have sufficient proof that this broker is non-legit and is possibly a scammer.
We advise you to look elsewhere and select a forex broker from one of the well-established jurisdictions from around the world, such as the US, Australia, the EU or the UK. Only licensed brokers from these jurisdictions can provide protection against scammers and a guarantee for the safety of your funds. In the US and Australia, brokers must be well capitalised and their initial capital must be no less than $20 million and 1 million AUD respectively. Such a high amount of capital serves as a wall against scammers because, as you can imagine, they will never invest so much money just to look legit. Also, being well-capitalised means that these brokers will be able to take care of their clients in case of unfavourable events.
On the other hand, the licensed brokers from the EU and the UK must provide only 730,000 EUR in the form of initial capital. However, they also must contribute to a compensation scheme or fund from which their clients will be compensated in case of bankruptcy. If the broker is regulated by the CySec and contributes to the local Investor Compensation Fund, then its clients will be refunded up to 20,000 EUR should the company go belly up. Clients of licensed brokers regulated by FCA will be compensated up to 85,000 GBP per person but only if the broker contributes to the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Not bad, eh?
So, please do your homework and research the brokers from these jurisdictions in the links we provided above to select one that suits your trading needs and that will provide you with peace of mind that you won’t be scammed and your funds are safe.
Bank ADS Trading software
The trading software available to Bank ADS clients is a web trader. Although we opened an account on this broker’s website and we got a trading account number and login details, due to broken links on the website, we were not able to open the web trader.
However, we were able to find information about the spread and the leverage which are factors that affect every forex transaction. In the account types section on the company’s website, we see that the spread for the Standard account is 4 pips. We must say that this is quite above the industry average and the implications for the traders are that it will increase the cost of transactions and it won’t be possible to make a sustainable profit in the long run. Also, in the account types section, we saw that the leverage is 1:400. Some traders get excited seeing such high leverage as it adds more trading power and it looks like it amplifies their potential for profit. However, what happens, in reality, is that high leverage increases your risk exposure in case of unsuccessful transactions. It is not by chance that there is a leverage cap imposed on forex brokers in the EU and in the US which cannot exceed 1:30 and 1:50 respectively. Only brokers in Australia can enjoy for the moment unlimited leverage. However, this leverage paradise will cease to exist in March 2021 when Australia will impose a leverage cap of 1:30 on major currencies, the same as the EU. Please don’t be tempted by high leverage, act rationally and do not waste your hard-earned money in risky transactions!
However, we must say that web traders are rather basic platforms and though it is easy to use them, they do nothing to enhance traders’ experience. On the other hand, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 do exactly that, and more! These two platforms are considered to be the best in the forex trade world and we strongly advise you to select a licensed broker that offers one of these platforms. Let us explain why. First of all, these platforms have many advantages compared to other platforms, including the web trader. They come equipped with an auto trading option, VPS, code base with customs scripts, an app market, trading signals, a financial calendar, etc. In addition to that their charting options and technical analysis indicators are to die for and will undoubtedly enhance your trading performance.
Bank ADS Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
To its clients, Bank ADS offers 5 different trading accounts – Standard, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and Islamic. The minimum initial deposit for the Standard account is $500. We find this initial amount to be rather high compared to some licensed brokers that will ask for as little as $1-5.
To feed their accounts, traders can choose between paying via credit card, Skrill and Neteller.
As per the Withdrawals section on the company’s website, it doesn’t seem that there is a limit to the minimum withdrawal amount. We also understand that there is no fee on withdrawal via credit card and that the withdrawal processing time is up to 72 hours.
Now, we ask you to pay attention to the bonus policy as it may affect your trading options. It stipulates that if the trader accepts a bonus of let’s say $300 and has deposited $10,000, then within 60 days he/she must trade a volume equal to $4,500,000 to be able to withdraw the bonus amount. This does not look like something easily achievable, so we ask you to exercise utmost caution when it comes to bonuses. Also, you must know that licensed brokers would never offer any bonuses or other free gifts and this is the difference between them and the non-legit forex brokers.
How does scam work?
If scammers make a movie, it will probably be called “Dream on”. They make everything sound credible and build their scam on your dreams of getting an easy and quick profit. People get duped if they decide to deposit money into one of the scammers schemes. What you probably do not know is that your hard-earned money goes as commission to the scammers. Next, you get inundated by daily calls. First, the scammers congratulate you for joining their business, next they try to persuade you to invest even more money. After all, the more money you send, the bigger money fall you can expect. This of course is not how things work. By the time you realise that no money is coming your way, it might be too late. All you want now is to get your money back and get out of there but the scammers have other plans for you and they won’t late get away so easily. Now they try to delay you so that you miss the deadline for a chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
If you get scammed, our advice is to act immediately and if you have paid your deposit via credit/debit card you may still have a chance. Visa and MasterCard allow you 540 days time limit to file for chargeback which gives you a fighting chance to recover your money.
However, if you have used bitcoin or bank wire for your payment, the chances of you recovering your money are really slim.
Cancelling your credit/debit card in case you have given the scammers your CVV code may be another good idea. Also, make sure to remove from your PC any software that my give scammers access to your private data stored on your computer.
Whatever you do to recover your funds, beware of the so-called recovery agents. Please make sure that you are dealing with a genuine one by checking their credentials and company’s information transparency. Otherwise, you may fall victim to another form of scam.
