TIRANA, Nov. 17 – An unlicensed operator has suddenly suspended its activity in Albania, apparently after going bankrupt, tricking hundreds of investors in Albania and Kosovo who had invested in online trading platforms.
Easy Invest, a limited liability company registered with the National Business Center in February 2016 to offer non-bank financial services, has left its Tirana office and closed down its website, leaving dozens of investors in Albania and Kosovo empty-handed.
The company which operated in Tirana and Shkodra and was set up as joint venture by Albanian citizen Shpresim Bajraktari, and his apparent Israeli partner Roee Shinberger filed a request with the National Business Center to suspend their activity in July 2016.
Monitor Magazine quotes Frasher, a citizen from Berat, southern Albania, who had invested a modest €60 with the company and claims the company has disappeared leaving dozens of investors in Albania and Kosovo empty-handed.
Expert Zef Preà§i, the director of Albania’s Center for Economic Research, has called on the prosecutor’s office and Parliament to investigate into how an unlicensed operator offering online trading services managed to register with the country’s National Business Center and tricked dozens of uninformed citizens without being previously licensed by the country’s central bank or the Financial Supervisory Authority.
“I think this case brings down the curtain on a negative development in our economy and finances and is likely of becoming more problematic in the future,” says Preà§i.
“And to protect against such consequences, official statements or calls ‘in principle” by the country’s Financial Stability Advisory Group at the beginning of this year are not enough, especially when the situation seems to be getting worse even after such appeals,” he adds.
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.
An annual report by the Financial Supervisory Authority shows there were 250 investors who invested about $1 million in 2015 in two operators licensed by the supervisory authority as agents of foreign brokers. More could have invested in unlicensed operators but no information is available about that.
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.
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.
In early January, the country’s highest financial authorities 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.
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 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.
