OptionBit parent Novox Capital Ltd received CySEC license in early February, offenses were in late 2012.
Cyprus financial regulator CySEC handed out what amounts to a slap on the wrist to binary options broker OptionBit, a Tradologic brand, for offering binary options trading services back in 2012, before it held a CySEC CIF license.
The maximum potential penalty for the offense is €350,000, so €5,000, in both absolute and relative terms, is not really a big deal. But clearly CySEC is trying to send a message, that the time of unregulated binary brokers on the EU island is now over, and will not be tolerated.
The fine was technically given to DC Digital Processing 2 Ltd, which operated the OptionBit franchise back in 2012. OptionBit is now owned by Novox Capital Ltd, which also operates the OptionXP binary options broker brand.
Although now regulated in Cyprus, OptionBit remains on the France financial regulator AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers) list of unauthorized websites offering of binary options trading.
The question of licensing in the binary options world has been a bit of a revolving door the past few months. While a number of binary brokers have indeed decided to take the plunge and ‘get regulated’ by CySEC, a number of others have decided that it is either too expensive or just not worthwhile. Binary options traders seem less inclined to care whether or not their broker is indeed regulated, as compared to Forex trading clients. We also had the case of iOption, one of the few CySEC regulated binary options brokers, which abruptly closed very soon after receiving its CIF license.
To see the CySEC press release click here (pdf, original in Greek only).