Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has announced that at its meeting of June 25, 2018, it has decided to wholly withdraw the Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) authorisation license with number CIF 159/11 of the company Blackwell Global Investments (Cyprus) Ltd.
CySEC did not give any specific reason for its decision.
However we understand that the giving up of the CySEC CIF license by Blackwell Global was actually a voluntary renunciation by the company, with the license no longer necessary since the group set up a separate UK subsidiary holding an FCA license.
Blackwell Global Investments (Cyprus) Ltd is the Cyprus arm of New Zealand based Retail FX brokerage group of the same name, Blackwell Global. The company set up its Cypriot subsidiary in 2011, and received then its CIF license. However the company remained fairly inactive in the EU, and in 2016 opened up a London office and received a UK FCA license (matched principal broker), as was reported at the time exclusively by LeapRate. To head its UK operation, Blackwell hired former Valutrades CEO Patrick Latchford.
We also understand that the company plans to keep its Limassol, Cyprus office open and active, with the local employees mainly providing services to the UK-FCA operation – which is largely what they were doing anyway the past while.
Michael Chai, Blackwell Global
Blackwell Global is controlled by Taiwanese businessman Kaw-Sing (Michael) Chai. Since its founding in 2010 the group has been mainly focused on Retail FX brokerage for Chinese and Far East clients, while more recently starting to build up its European business
The formal CySEC decision notice can be seen here.