Erscheinung:02.06.2023 | Topic Unauthorised business, Consumer protection rcebanque.company: BaFin investigates operator allegedly domiciled in London
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht – BaFin) warns consumers about the website rcebanque.company. The operator of this website, which operates under the company name Bridgewater Associates (UK) Limited, London, is offering financial services, in particular the management of client portfolios, without the required authorisation.
The website also includes a further address in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. BaFin is currently investigating whether the operator of this website is the same as a company of the same name that is registered with the UK company register (“Companies House”). BaFin also wishes to point out that, in the business documents available on the aforementioned website, the company Safe Investment Group LLC, also allegedly domiciled in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, is named as the operator of the website. According to information available to BaFin, the operators were in the past also responsible for the websites rcebanque.com and rcebanque.org.
Anyone wishing to conduct banking business or provide financial or investment services in Germany may do so only with authorisation from BaFin. However, some companies offer these services without the necessary authorisation. Information on whether a particular company has been granted authorisation by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies.
The information provided by BaFin is based on section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG).
Please be aware
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.