finance

Dubious online banking companies on the rise

Financial regulatory authorities warn of risks posed by a growing number of unlicensed banking services operating online.

LA PRENSA

risky business: Panamanian banking and trust companies Comercializadora Virtual S.A., Prive Marine Corporation, and Promotores, S.A. have been suspected of operating without licenses, and are therefore not regulated by the Comisión Nacional de Valores.1089357

Faced with the explosion of unlicensed financial services businesses operating online, both the Superintendencia de Banco de Panamá (SBP) and the Comisión Nacional de Valores (CNV) have issued warnings aimed at preventing investors from falling victim to fraud.

Thursday, SBP officials posted a notice on its website reporting that the Panamanian banking and trust companies Comercializadora Virtual S.A., Prive Marine Corporation, and Promotores, S.A. were either operating without official authorization from the entity, or had done so in the past. The advisory also noted that those companies without licenses are neither regulated nor supervised by the SBP.

Although these warnings have been successful in deterring smaller businesses of this kind, one company has persisted in offering its unauthorized services despite the regulatory commission’s best efforts to shut them down.

That company is Finanzas Forex, www.finanzasforex.com, an online financial entity owned by Evolution Market Group, a Panamanian corporation that boasts an alleged “24,932 investors” in 70 countries, according to information provided by company promoters. Among the company’s main hooks, is a promise to generate monthly returns of between 10 and 100 percent in high-risk investment plans.

Having failed to shut them down, the country’s financial regulatory authorities continue to restate the risks posed by investing in the company, whose activities are not subject to market oversight.

CNV chairman Juan Martans said that his institution can “neither endorse nor guarantee"” the banking services offered by financial intermediaries working within Forex market on behalf of their clients.

A recent finding by Mexican news media reported that Finanzas Forex had issued an apology to its investors concerning the delay in recovering earnings, a sign financial experts viewed as a telltale sign of fraud.