Beware! Swiss Capital Bank is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.

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Swiss Capital Bank is neither a bank nor Swiss, nor is it the broker “specialized in leveraged forex trading” it claims to be. In fact, this is just another transparently fraudulent operation. It is highly advisable to stay away from them and under no circumstances to trust them with your money.

SWISS CAPITAL BANK REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS

Swiss Capital Bank tries to convey that it is a respectable business not only by its pompous name, but also by giving contact addresses in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Austria. However, the text of the Terms and Conditions states that the company’s relations with customers will be governed by the Estonian Governing laws.

On the website of the institution that supervises brokers in Switzerland, The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), can be found warning from July 2021 that Swiss Capital Bank is not included in the commercial register. Swiss Capital Bank is included in a warning list of companies that may be engaged in activities for which they are not authorised.

Checking the records of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the UK, Financial Market Authority (FMA) of Austria and the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority also shows that there is no licensed broker with that name in those jurisdictions.

When completing a bank transfer request, the name of another company appears as the recipient. This company, Select Enterprises B.V, has an address in the Netherlands and an account with a Lithuanian bank.

Swiss Capital Bank doesn’t send a confirmation email when you register on the site, which is usually required for any registration, even on most scam sites. Everything points to the conclusion that they are not legitimate brokers, but just another scammers posing as legitimate businesses offering fake investment services.

Such websites should be avoided at all costs. Instead, you can approach one of the many legitimate brokers operating under the supervision of respected regulatory bodies such as Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) or Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. As their customer you will enjoy a number of guarantees including negative balance protection and guarantee for your funds if the broker goes bankrupt, which goes up to EUR 20,000 in EU and 85,000 GBP in the UK.

SWISS CAPITAL BANK TRADING SOFTWARE

Swiss Capital Bank uses a fairly standard webtrader platform that has most of the basic functions for placing and applying technical indicators to charts. Here is how it looks like:

The platform does not work properly with some browsers such as Firefox. But more importantly, legitimate brokers offer clients much more advanced and capable solutions, such as MetaTrader 5 (MT5). This platform has many benefits, including the ability to design and implement custom bots for real-time automated trading and strategy back-testing.

SWISS CAPITAL BANK TRADING CONDITIONS

The Swiss Capital Bank’s site describes three types of trade accounts – Standard, Premium and VIP. It even claims to offer a “savings account” without any details given. On the website the minimum deposit is listed as USD 250, but on the deposit menu the amount is USD 100.

A spread of 1.2 pips is specified for the Standard account, and for other accounts the levels are even lower. The trading platform also shows a spread of 1 pip and lower. These would be competitive levels if Swiss Capital Bank were a trustworthy broker.

The Webtrader platform has leverage set at 1:10, which is actually low. Financial regulators in the UK and European Union allow leverage of up to 1:30 for major currency pairs. However, in the text of the Terms and conditions it is mentioned that Capital Bank offers to the clients bonuses and incentives. This is something that is not allowed to licensed brokers operating in the EU and UK.

SWISS CAPITAL BANK DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES

Two deposit options are available – wire transfer and credit card. The second option can only be executed through several unknown and fishy platforms – NeoBanQ, TexCent, GumBallPay and Pradex. These platforms have been used by a number of dubious sites we’ve reviewed.
Minimum withdrawal is 250 USD/GBP/EUR for wire transfers and 100 USD/GBP/EUR for other methods. The system allows a minimum deposit of 100 units of the currency in which the account is set up.

Bonuses issued to the clients can only be withdrawn subject to execution of a minimum trading volume of 30 times the deposit amount plus the bonus issued. The Terms and Conditions also specify that any money in the client’s account that is not deposited directly by the client, including any profits, is not considered client funds and Swiss Capital Bank “shall have full right to reclaim any and all such funds”.

There is also a significant monthly fee for inactive accounts, amounting to 10% of the funds in the account. In one place in the Terms and Conditions it says that it is activated after 6 months of inactivity, but in another it says 3 months. Such discrepancies are also indicative that we are not dealing with a legitimate business.

HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK

Scammers who promise easy money without any effort are nothing new, especially on the internet. But given the excitement around bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in recent years, malicious actors have run rampant more than ever, capitalizing not only on people’s desire to solve their financial woes with a magic wand, but also ignorance and misunderstanding of how blockchain and complex financial instruments actually work.

If your curiosity is stirred by one of the many flashy websites promising easy riches, and you provide your contacts, you will soon be contacted by skillful and persuasive scammers who will convince you to start with a relatively small and “risk-free” investment. If you agree to this, you will be transferred to even more skilled at convincing scammers, who will persuade you to invest even more. Any money you give to such people is money you are unlikely to get back.

Any attempt to withdraw deposits or alleged profits will be hampered by numerous and significant fees, as well as harsh and often prohibitive conditions written into the terms and conditions – such as high trading volume requirements, unexpected “taxes”, or withdrawal fees as high as 10% or even 20% of your funds.

WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED

Recovering money you have given to fraudsters is difficult and often impossible. Fraudsters always want you to provide them with documents such as a copy of your ID and proof of address so that they can claim that it is a legitimate transaction, agreed voluntarily between both parties. If the transaction is made by credit or debit card, you can request a cashback and hope for the best, but transactions via wire transfer or cryptocurrencies are not refundable. It is important not to trust online offers from people who offer to recover your money in exchange for an upfront payment, because this is also a well-known scam.

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