Federal Financial Supervisory Authority

Year 2002Regulated by Government

Prior to 2002, in Germany the regulation of the financial industry was undertaken by three separate agencies. In May 2002 BaFin was formed, following the passing of the Financial Services and Integration Act. The aim of the Act and the merging of the three agencies was to create one integrated financial regulator that would be able to cover all financial markets. The agencies that merged together were the Federal Banking Supervisory Office, the Federal Supervisory Office for Securities Trading, and the Federal Insurance Supervisory Office.BaFin was given further responsibility following the passing of the Banking Act in 2003 with the aim of increasing customer protection and improving the reputation of the German financial system. The extra powers included monitoring the credit-worthiness of financial institutions and collecting detailed information about them. This particular area of responsibility was shared with the Bundesbank. Currently, BaFin is experiencing a kind of transition, as the responsibility for banking supervision is being taken over by the European Central Bank.

Disclose broker

Danger Unauthorized

Invest Area

Disclosure summary

Disclosure matching Website matching
Disclosure time 2022-01-25
Reason for punishment The company is not subject to BaFin’s supervision.

Disclosure details

Trading platform investarea.com: BaFin investigates Invest Area LTD

25.01.2022 | Topic Unauthorised business Trading platform investarea.com: BaFin investigates Invest Area LTD In accordance with section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG), BaFin would like to make clear that Invest Area LTD, United Kingdom, has not been granted authorisation under the KWG to conduct banking business or provide financial services. The company is not subject to BaFin’s supervision. The information provided on the website operated by Invest Area LTD, investarea.com, and the information and documents available to BaFin give reasonable grounds to suspect that the company is conducting banking business or providing financial services in Germany without the required authorisation. On the website, the menu item „Legal“ leads to a page featuring the BaFin logo, among others. If users then click on the BaFin logo, they are directed to a fake BaFin webpage, portal.mvp.bafin.com.de, which gives the false impression that Invest Area LTD has been granted authorisation by BaFin. Alongside the BaFin logo, two further logos are featured on the page for organisations designated “MFA Markets Financial Authority” and “Swiss SFINS”/“SFINS Financial Securities”, neither of which has a national or international supervisory mandate. These logos falsely give the impression that Invest Area LTD is regulated in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Companies that conduct banking business or provide financial services in Germany require authorisation under the KWG. However, some companies operate without the necessary authorisation. Information on whether a particular company has been authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies. BaFin, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt – BKA) and the German state criminal police offices (Landeskriminalämter) recommend that consumers seeking to invest money online should exercise the utmost caution and do the necessary research beforehand in order to identify fraud attempts at an early stage.

Annex

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Danger

2022-01-01

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