Resurrection IronFX? New promotion of the broker

On Friday, June 2, 2017, a mailing with a new broker's promotion was sent IronFX. It would not be surprising, if not for the fact that the whole group of clients (former clients?) Did not complain about the problem with recovering their deposits for ... Over 2 years. Is the new promotion an idea to start overdue payments?

The message that has been sent concerns the bonus promotions that IronFX was once famous for since its inception, i.e. from 2010. The current promotion concerns the so-called Sharing Bonus and Iron Bonus up to 2 000 USD.

Mailing IronFx - click to enlarge

Clicking on an ad takes us to the British site ironfx.co.ukon which, inter alia, we read:

Choose your bonus NOW and increase your trading potential in the world's best trading environment provided by IronFX, the Global Leader in Online Trading.

and

- Bonus on all Deposits
- Secure Deposit & Withdrawal Methods
- Segregation of Clients' Funds

In the regulations, we will find information that the promotion applies to customers who open an account under British or Australian jurisdiction. At the bottom of the page, there is information that IronFX has three licenses:

• British FCA - No. 585561
• Australian ASIC - No. 417482
• Cyprus CySEC - No. 125/10

The lack of an offer for clients under Cypriot jurisdiction most probably results from new CySEC guidelineswhich entered into force three months ago. Meanwhile, let's get a little closer to the history of IronFX ...

Read: Broker bonuses - watch out for promotions

Customers from 2,5 year without withdrawals

Iron Fx President with representatives of FC Barcelona

The "iron broker" entered the market with a great bang. Initially, he only had a Cypriot license, which he obtained in 2010. Despite the average trading conditions, he managed to win the hearts of many traders from around the world, thanks to high bonus promotions (even sponsoring the football club FC Barcelona). This marketing maneuver gave the impression that the trader was getting money for free. With a deposit of $ 200, we got the second amount from the broker, which we could use for investments or lose without any consequences.

Aggressive marketing, generously paid employees and partners who - as it is said behind the scenes - were additionally rewarded for losses achieved by the clients brought in, strongly intensified the broker's popularity.

The first signals that something is wrong have already appeared in the 2014 year in China. At that time, the first partners traders reported their problems with receiving the generated profits. According to official announcements, using a loophole in bonus promotion regulations, dishonest partners generated powerful profits without any risk. At that time, hardly anyone could see a deeper bottom here.

The nail in the coffin was hammered in January 2015 after a memorable one Black Thursday. Soon after this, traders began reporting a massive holdback in making withdrawals to the broker's clients and partners. All machine withdrawal transactions received the message "Waiting for Processing”And only a few were implemented as planned. Initially, the company's representatives explained that verification of accounts and transactions was carried out to determine whether there had been any fraud with the use of bonus promotions. After the high-profile scandal with Chinese traders, the explanation made sense. However, it lost it when people who never they did not use any bonuses. Subsequent translations were not the end.

Screenshot from the payment panel of one of IronFX's clients

The situation gradually escalated, and the number of dissatisfaction increased. Broker offices around the world, including Warsaw, quickly deserted, and employees quickly migrated to competing companies avoiding any consequences.

What about regulators

Complaints and complaints submitted by traders to regulators from various countries yielded unsatisfactory results. The Cypriot regulator had the most work, but it issued a license for IronFX. This naturally made him receive reports from all over the world. In April 2015, CySEC announced the opening of an investigation against IronFX (CySEC message).

Interestingly, for over 2 years the broker managed to keep the license and the only consequence was to receive a financial penalty of 330 000 EUR (we wrote about it in February summary of CySEC activities in 2015-2016 years). In the face of outstanding payments calculated in millions, the amount seems to be abnormally small.

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority in October 2015 issued a statement:

In connection with inquiries which have recently been submitted to the Office of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA Office) concerning foreign investment company IronFX Global Ltd with registered office in Limassol, we inform that the competent body in the scope of supervision over this entity is the Cypriot supervisory body, Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

The full content of the message

It is interesting that IronFX has all the time notification of the KNF and it does not appear on list of public warnings.

In the final analysis, only a few traders managed to recover all the funds. It was difficult to establish any regularity in why an X person got it back and Y person did not. Some lucky people explained it with patience, others took independent legal action.

A documentary about IronFX

A former BBC reporter, who also invested funds with the title broker, conducted his own investigation. The result is a 14-minute documentary showing the backstage of IronFX. In the comments under the video, there are many traders' votes, who were also injured by the Cypriot company.