June 30, AtoZForex – The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), Canada’s largest provincial financial regulator “makes rules that aim to prevent misconduct and maintain the integrity of the markets.” As a part of its regulatory activities, Canadian watchdog is maintaining its warning list, where all of the unlicensed brokerages are recorded. Yesterday, its blacklist was updated with three names of binary options brokers.
Why OSC red flagged WinOptions, BigOption, and OptionRidge?
In recent months, a lot of skeptical attention from media and regulators was given to the binary options industry as there are still a lot of firms that operate outside of the regulations. Canadian regulator decided to pay closer attention to the industry as a mean of protection.
Binary options brokers WinOptions, BigOPtion, and OptionRidge were added to OSC warning list as a result of Canadian watchdog’s regulatory activity. As it appears, three unlicensed brokers were red flagged for being involved in the activities that may cause a risk to Canada based investors. Unregistered binary brokers were targeting the Canadian traders without any authorization to do so.
As the OSC red flagged WinOptions, BigOption, and OptionRidge, these binary options firms are in reality operated and owned by other firms. Respectively, Winoption is operated by the SAL Ltd., BigOption is owned by Wirestech Limited, while OptionRidge is run by Mountain Rider Ltd., :
| Name of the broker | Country | Official URL |
| WinOption | Marshall Islands | www.winoptions.com |
| BigOption | United Kingdom | www.bigoption.com |
| OptionRidge | Marhsall Islands | www.optionridge.com |
How can I check the broker?
As it is stated on their official website, WinOptions is today’s leading binary options trading platform. As for BigOption, they provide the binary options trading experience and claim to have the office in London, UK. The OptionRidge binary options broker is providing trading services as well as the educational content on their website.
A list of all unauthorized websites that offer binary options trading is available on the website of the regulator. According to the regulator, in order to make sure that the company is fully authorized to solicit to Canadian investors, you can check the National Registration Search.
The regulator warns the potential investors that if the intermediary does not appear on any of the lists, it is strongly recommended not to make use of their services.
See also: New OSC Whistleblower program will launch in July
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