Japan’s Watchdog Issues Warnings Against Two More FX Brokers

The Kanto Finance Bureau in Japan has added two forex brokers Angelo Limited and NEXTART to its caution list. The Japanese watchdog said that two firms have not been registered or regulated to offer trading services in the country.

According to the official statement on the bureau’s website, both firms have been soliciting or offering unregulated services.  Japanese citizens who are clients to both firms are therefore unprotected from related trading risks associated with unregulated brokers.

The announcement adds to the long list of firms that faced a blacklist in Kanto. While such firms may have authorization in other jurisdictions, it is often not sufficient to operate in Kanto.  The bureau does not recognize such passports and also requires firms to obtain licensing from the JFSA.

The Japanese Financial Services Agency experienced similar cases with firms that face regulations in other external jurisdictions. Infin Markets is a CySEC-regulated broker that faced the same problem in Japan, despite having the authorization to operate in Cyprus.

However, despite the warning against the two firms, the bureau has stated the information obtained via solicitation could be inaccurate.

In related Kanto Financial Bureau news, the agency was part of FSA’s earlier initiative to regulate foreign brokers in Japan. The FSA established a Financial Market Entry Office in January 2021 for better communication with foreign assets managers in Japan.

Kanto Finance Bureau Warns Against Binary Options Bubble

Furthermore, Japan’s watchdog has warned against the resurfacing of suspected binary options brokers, after adding several to its blacklist. The agency has said that despite its efforts to flag down such fraudsters, sprouting on the internet is massive.

Most of these con artists in binary options services offer deals with as short time frames as 30 seconds. These kinds of deals are illegal in Japan. In fact, they run against local regulations that prohibit such short-term binary options offerings.

In binary options, brokers offer their clients a fixed payout for predicting correctly, the outcome of two options.  Under the Japanese financial regulation guidelines, binary options acts as derivative instruments. Due to the popularity of gambling activity in Japan, yes or no bets experience high levels of regulation.

Additionally, the JFSA publishes a monthly binary options report that aggregates the total volume of regulated brokers. This report serves to keep clients and other concerned parties on the current status of the binary options market.

Similarly, investors can check on JFSA’s website to confirm if certain brokers on the internet underwent registrations and regulations. On Kanto Financial Bureau’s website, however, the list contains names of blacklisted brokers.