Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has announced that it has reversed part of a €180,000 fine issued last September to regulated binary options broker IQ Option Europe Ltd, which operates website iqoption.com.
CySEC stated that €20,000 of the €180,000 fine is now not payable. The €20,000 was for the company not taking all the reasonable steps to obtain, when executing orders, the best possible result for its client.
Specifically, CySEC’s original complaint against the company stated that prices used to compute results for trades by IQ Option customers did not meet actual market prices of the underlying assets.
However CySEC now states that the company submitted information showing that prices at which it effected trades did indeed match real market prices.
The remainder €160,000 fine against IQ Option remains intact. That portion of the fine was for a combination of offenses including :
- IQ Options’s head office was not situated in Cyprus,
- the Company did not maintain adequate and orderly records of client orders and client transactions,
- the Company did not maintain adequate and orderly records of marketing materials,
- the Company proceeded to the outsourcing of functions to such a degree which rendered it a ‘letter box entity’,
- IQ Option failed to act fairly, honestly and professionally in relation to bonus terms and conditions provided to clients.