CNMV Issues Warning on StoneX and IG Group Clones

Despite ongoing attempts by financial industry authorities, unregulated investment businesses continue to defy their determination. The Spanish CNMV (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores) has lately revealed many fresh cases of fraudsters mimicking well-known retail trade businesses. Their most recent warning list includes various firms operating in Spain without the proper permissions.

CNMV Issues Alerts Against StoneX and IG Group Clones

In a recent update, the Spanish financial markets regulator, CNMV, added 10 new firms to its warning list. Notably, “Finance IG,” which operates under the domains finance-ig.com and financeig.com, has been discovered as a clone of the famous, publicly listed London-based corporation IG Group. IG Group is well-known across Europe and throughout the world.

Furthermore, the list contains a clone of the US-based corporation StoneX, which provides services via the website stonexly.com/es. This is not the first case of trademark impersonation; CNMV issued a warning a few months ago about a company posing as the prominent social trading site eToro.

According to surveys, retail traders see broker and signal provider clones as the most serious danger to the business. Discussions with representatives of often copied businesses demonstrate that the practice is so widespread that successfully combatting it remains a major difficulty.

Eight Unlicensed Entities and Clones

In addition to the two clones, the CNMV's report named eight firms operating without sufficient licenses in the Spanish market. These companies include Fusionlots, TD Markets, Rumlenomic, AMI Solutions, Aduent Capital, TCM Globals, and Trader Experts.

“According to CNMV records, these institutions are not registered in the corresponding registry of this Commission and, therefore, are not authorized to provide investment services or other activities subject to the CNMV's supervision,” the regulator noted.

This update comes after a series of warnings from the Spanish authority over the last month. In June, the CNMV investigated eight unlicensed FX/CFD brokers. CNMV recently highlighted Linq Capital, a company that provides trading leverage of up to 1000:1. Linq Capital purports to be based in a non-existent UK city, and its questionable actions have drawn the notice of Germany's BaFin.