IC Markets (EU) Fined €200,000 by CySEC for Leverage Violations

On 19 July, The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) announced its board decision to impose an administrative fine of €200,000 on the Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) IC Markets (EU) Ltd.

The Board of CySEC reached this decision "after identifying that the CIF participated, knowingly and intentionally, in activities that had as their objective or resulted in the circumvention of the requirements related to the payment of initial margin protection of the investors. This resulted in leverage of up to 1:1000, being facilitated through a third country entity that belonged to the same group of companies in an attempt to avoid the legal obligation for maximum leverage of 1:30."

When imposing the administrative fine, CySEC took into account, among other factors, the importance of ensuring that individuals under its supervision fully comply with the provisions of the Law. IC Markets (EU) Ltd failed to ensure the protection of the interests of its clients, a matter to which CySEC attaches particular importance.

"CySEC also took into account the long duration of the infringement, the financial strength of the CIF and the fact that in 2021 IC Markets (EU) Ltd committed the same infringement, resulting in a repeated behavior, despite having previously assured CySEC of taking the corrective measures. Another factor is the seriousness given to CIFs’ obligations to avoid the circumvention of the restrictive measures referred to the Directive DI87-09, which were established for the protection of investors," the Cypriot regulator stated in its announcement.

The Chairman of CySEC, Dr George Theocharides, commented, “CySEC takes any misconduct by supervised entities seriously and is determined to bring non-compliant operations to a halt in order to enhance investor protection and the responsible growth of the investment sector.”

IC Markets (EU) Ltd has announced its intention to appeal the decision by the CySEC.