Wintrado’s Licensed Office in Cyprus Is Empty

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Broker: Wintrado

Date of visit: July 26^th , 2019

Conclusion: company exists but the office is empty

On-the-spot investigation

WikiFX team recently visited Wintrado's licensed office in Cyprus, located at 254 Arch. Leontiou A, Suite 22, Limassol according to regulatory information.

We reached "maximos court" at 254 Arch. Leontiou A, got to level 2 according to the floor directory and found an office with the logo of Wintrado at the door. We rang the door bell, hoping to meet the staff and learn more about the company, but no one answered. We finally concluded that though Wintrado's office exists, it's only an empty office without any working employee.

Analysis

Cyprus, a small South European country on the Mediterranean shore, is also a major forex center where many brokers started and expanded their business. The country enjoys convenient connections with Europe, Asia and Africa thanks to its advantageous geographical location, while being an EU member gives it access to the European market. In addition, higher regulation flexibility, such as shorter waiting period during license application and favorable tax policies for enterprises, also contributed to its reputation as the world's major forex hub. Yet in recent years, several forex scandals involving CySEC-licensed brokers, such as the escape of IronFX and ACFX, have stained the country's reputation in forex circle and raised questions about its regulation competence. After that, CySEC(Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) has made much efforts in enhancing its forex environment and restore its regulation credibility. Currently, there are still many well-established forex brokers with MT4 trading software in Cyprus.

Wintrado is a Swiss Fintech company headquartered in Lucerne, Switzerland that focuses on developing quality trading applications and platforms which offer investors better experience in forex and CFD trading. Like many of its peers, Wintrado registered a branch in Cyprus due to the more relaxed finance environment. However, it has not received the forex brokerage license from CySEC as the regulator has reinforced regulations through a series of policies. Wintrado is thus unregulated and its office in Cyprus has no working staff.

Conclusion

The WikiFX App shows that Wintrado, without valid regulatory status at the moment, is also suspected of operating in overrun business and other non-compliant practice. The broker is rated at 1.20 on the WikiFX App and has low credibility. Therefore, WikiFX reminds investors to keep away from it for the safety of your assets.

Meanwhile, the compliance of Cyprus-regulated forex brokers remains uneven and the situation is unlikely to be improved overnight. Compared with other regulations of the financial industry, forex regulation is relatively weaker; and more often it depends on the brokers themselves to conduct business in a compliant and trustworthy manner. When choosing a broker, investor's preference should be given to those well-established brokers with good reputations. If you like to find out about more brokers, please visit the WikiFX App or website.