TIRANA, May 3 – Albania’s Financial Supervisory Authority has renewed its appeal to potential online trading platform investors after identifying an unlicensed operator luring investors on its website and through phone calls.
The country’s second most important financial institution says the www.fxlider.com platform has no agent approved by the Financial Supervisory Authority to offer investment services in Albania. Under Albania’s legislation, foreign brokers are allowed to offer services in the country through an “agent” operating as a company in Albania after receiving the Financial Supervisor’s okay.
On its website, Serbia-based fxlider.com advertises itself as an affiliate of UK-based Fortrade Ltd offering services in several regional countries such as Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina in their respective languages.
“We call on investors to be very careful before taking a decision on accepting an offer on the fxlider.com website or contact through phone calls as the Supervisory Authority does not monitor the legality of the foreign broker’s activity operating the fxlider.com platform and cannot protect the interest of investors engaging with unauthorized companies or people,” the watchdog says in a statement, calling on investors to report unlicensed operators.
The identification of a new unlicensed operator comes after another unlicensed online operator suddenly suspended its activity last November, tricking hundreds of investors in Albania and Kosovo.
While no statistics are available yet for 2016, Albanians invested about $1 million in online trading in international stock exchanges in 2015 when several unlicensed operators emerged, triggering concern by the country’s highest financial authorities.
Online trading platforms offer investors opportunities to invest in financial products in international stock exchanges, mainly in government securities, foreign exchange and commodity products such as oil and precious metals.
The country’s highest financial authorities have also previously warned Albanians to be careful with online trading in international stock exchanges, describing such investments as highly risky, especially if offered by unlicensed operators and used by investors lacking appropriate knowledge.
Potential investors are being lured by online brokers through phone calls and aggressive marketing campaigns at a time when only three brokers have been licensed by the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Bank of Albania to offer such services.
U.S.-owned Aksioner International Securities Brokerage Sh.A and Stock International Albania Sh.A, which operates as a subsidiary of Cyprus-based “Lead Capital Markets” Ltd, are the only two operators licensed by the supervisory authority. A third operator, Platinium Investment, established in mid-2012 as an Albanian-owned enterprise, has been licensed by the central bank as a non-bank financial institution.
Rising interest to investment in online platforms comes at a time when interest to invest in traditional bank deposits has waned due to interest rates dropping below 1 percent and the emerging investment funds are facing a slowdown due to a sharp drop in bond yields as the key interest rate has been cut to a historic low of 1.25 percent.
