Caveat Emptor! FOREX MMCIS freezes withdrawals after regulatory warning

Just one day after the Maltese regulator issued a warning to potential investors regarding retail FX firm FOREX MMCIS, a brokerage which is synonymous in Ukraine and Russia for its extensive marketing campaigns and promises of great returns, the company has now imposed strict restrictions on all withdrawals, as a part of what it has termed “anti-crisis measures”.

This morning, the website of the broker emerged with a new announcement, made by the newly elected president of the company Roman Komysa, which introduced a set of measures poised to avert panic amid the company’s clients and return the business back to normal.

The measures include the cancellation of all withdrawal requests submitted before the publication of the president’s order, but that were not yet processed as approved, as well as the imposition of a maximum limit of $200 on withdrawals for claims submitted after the publication of the order.

The time for review of applications for withdrawal has been increased from 3 to 7 days and there is a limit on the number of withdrawal requests one should wait for at least a week before submitting a second request.

The order states that the measures will be in force until the situation normalizes and insists that these measures are usual when there are bank problems. The president does not take into account, however, that FOREX MMCIS has never held any license to operate as a bank.

The havoc which the company’s situation has wreaked upon the clients of the company began several months ago as the broker announced a complex procedure of verification of accounts so that the clients would be able to withdraw their money. At that time, the company explained the complex procedures with its plans to obtain a European license, claiming that its new regulator was demanding this complex verification procedure.

The forum on the broker’s website has recently contained a litany of publications indicating that the potential regulator of the broker would be the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA). This speculation was brought to an end yesterday, as the MFSA published a warning against FOREX MMCIS and explicitly stated that there had been no talks on the company obtaining a license in Malta.

FOREX MMCIS has caught the attention of regulators numerous times, one of which being Russia’s CRFIN, which blacklisted the company earlier this year.

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