Sunday, November 24, 2013

Has 4XP shut up shop for good?




Forex and CFD broker 4XP has been making the Forex headlines for all the wrong reasons, with numerous FX news outlets covering the recent woes of the brokerage. First off, Cyprus’s financial regulator CySEC issued a warning to investors stating that the firm wasn’t and never had been regulated by the body. Originally many interpreted this warning as pointing to the fact that 4XP had been cross promoted with other regulated CySEC brokerages who were using the same FX services firm. There has also been speculation that this warning was released due to the regulator having received complaints about the firm, with some forums suggesting that 4XP had not been paying out client withdrawal requests for some time.

The situation has preceded to get worse with it being known that the firm had cut ties with the Israeli based services firm which was responsible for customer support, marketing and other brokerage related services. The reason why 4XP severed its agreement with the FX services firm which provided all of the client facing services is not known, however customers 4XP have reported that they have been unable to get into contact with anyone from the brokerage. Which has understandably worried customers who are unsure whether they will be unable to get hold the cash that they had deposited with the firm. In response to this the pseudo-regulator the FMRCC announced that it would be revoking the licence of the firm.

Finally, 4XP sent an email to their customers stating that they would be unable to process withdrawals and deposits due to the BVI’s Financial Services Commission having put out a cease and desist regarding the firm. While it was true that the countries regulator had put out a cease and desist regarding the firms act ivies from the offshore territory of the British Virgin Islands, this notice specifically stated that the order would not prevent the firm from processing withdrawals. So to many this suggested that the brokerage had concluded that it was time to shut up shop and run off with depositors cash. This seems to have been confirmed by the fact that the brokerages website 4XP.com is down at the time of writing this article. If it is the case that the brokerage has opted to shut up shop, it provides individuals with a good warning to why they should never deposit with an unregulated brokerage.  

It does appear that 4XP has gone belly up and the firm has managed to disappear off with the clients assets. This isn’t the first time that firms have collapsed and disappeared only to leave their clients high and dry, 4XP’s sudden closure may become one of the larger straight out FX frauds which have occurred over the last couple of years. This really highlights the dangers of doing business with an unregulated brokerage, with proper financial regulation providing traders with some level of protection against such happenings.
    

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