RoboMarkets Required by CySEC to Stop Offering Non-Monetary Rewards to Retail Clients

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued an announcement on Wednesday (August 23) ordering retail Forex and CFD broker RoboMarkets to stop offering non-monetary reward to its retail clients.

At a meeting held on 1 March 2023, the board of the regulator decided that 'the CIF Robomarkets Ltd does not comply with Article 42 of Regulation (EU) 600/2014, as specified in paragraph 5 of DI 87-09, during the relevant time, due to participating in activities that had as their object or result, the circumvention of the requirement of paragraph 4(1)(d) of DI 87-09 since, through its website and social platforms linked to it, it provided its customers with a non-monetary reward', according to the announcement.

Pursuant to the power provided in Article 71(6)(b) of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017, Law, the CySEC decided to order the firm to cease the activities of providing any forms of non-monetary rewards such as race tickets and branded merchandise to its CFD retail clients.

It marks the fifth board decision issued by the regulator since this month. Earlier in August, the watchdog announced its fines against three firms including Greenmont AIFLNP Ltd, Stone Edge Capital Ltd and Pathfinder Management Services Ltd, for their deficiencies or problems with AML and CTF. Additionally, CySEC has withdrawn the authorization of Greenmont AIFLNP Ltd as it no longer fulfils the conditions under which authorisation was granted.