Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has announced a fine of €270,000 settling charges against Royal Forex Ltd, parent of the Retail FX website brands Roinvesting.com and royalforex.com. The decision put out by CySEC on the matter (see full text below) is fairly vague, but hints at issues including proper organization of the company, conflicts of interest, and information to clients.

Roinvesting.com is a sponsor of Serie A team AC Milan, and the club’s Official CFD Partner, until June 30, 2021.

We view this as the latest in a series of moves by the Cypriot regulator to “clean up” the Retail FX business which flourishes on the EU island state. Other recent fines handed out by CySEC include to FXGM, Libertex, 24option, Tradernet, OffersFX, and FINFXPRO.

The text of the decision issued by CySEC follows:

06 October 2020

CYSEC Board Decision

Announcement date: 06.10.2020; Board decision date: 03.08.2020

Regarding: Royal Forex Ltd

Legislation: Τhe Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law

Subject: Settlement €270.000

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission («CySEC») would like to note the following:

CySEC, under article 37(4) of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission Law of 2009, has the power to reach a settlement for any violation or possible violation, act or omission for which there is reasonable ground to believe that it took place in violation of the provisions of CySEC’s supervised legislation.

A settlement has been reached with the CIF Royal Forex Ltd (“the Company”) for possible violations of The Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017 (“the Law”). More specifically, the settlement reached involved assessing the Company’s compliance for the period January 2018 until December 2019, following information on August 2018 and after an onsite inspection on March 2019, with regard tο:

1. Article 5(1) of the Law regarding the requirement for CIF authorisation.

2. Article 22(1) of the Law as to the authorisation conditions of articles 17(2) and 17(5)(a) of the Law, regarding the organisational requirements with which a CIF is required to comply.

3. Article 24 of the Law regarding conflicts of interest.

4. Articles 25(1) and 25(3) of the Law regarding the general principles and information to clients.

The settlement reached with the Company, for the possible violations, is for the amount of €270.000, which the Company has already paid.

It is noted that the amounts due to settlement agreements are calculated as revenue (income) to the Treasury of the Republic and do not constitute income of CySEC.