The Malaysian financial regulator, the Securities Commission, has issued out a statement where it added three more companies to its Warning List. One of the more noteworthy facts about this event, however, is that OANDA Malaysia and Hot Forex were two of those three companies. These two companies stand as two popular forex brokers in their own right.

Big Names Added To The Warning List

The third addition to the list is Torque Market Limited, or Torque Trader. ALongside the normal charges, Torque Trader is being blamed for using the logo of the SC in a misrepresentative manner.

This caution list was updated merely one week after the SC had previously added to the list. The previous addition to the listing was 13 companies in total, and included both the local and international brands of Alpari, as well.

Lack Of Licensing To Operate In Malaysia

The SC was clear that these brokerages aren’t licensed to operate within the borders of Malaysia. As such, they don’t have the authorizations needed to offer their respective services within the country at large. Through doing so anyways, these companies stand in violation with the Capital Markets and Services Act of 2007 of the country. Should promoters of the company be convicted of these violations, they could face heavy fines and even prison time.

In the latest warning list addition, the SC warned that neither OANDA nor Hot Forex holds the proper authorization, and are thus carrying out capital market activities in securities while being unlicensed. Alongside this, OANDA, in particular, is also operating within a recognized market without the SC’s authorization.

Legitimate By Other Standards

The interesting part about this mess is the fact that both Hot Forex and OANDA are reputable, established exchanges, and hold licensing rights from various international regulators.

Hot Forex, in particular, holds authorizations in the UAE, UK, Cyprus, and other. OANDA, in turn, is fully regulated by the UK’s FCA, the US’s CFTC, Canada’s IIROC, Australia’s ASIC, Japan’s FFAJ, as well as Singapore’s MAS. All of the aforementioned regulators are of very reputable standing.

Hot Forex itself is bused within Cyprus, with OANDA boasting a headquarters within the US.

This isn’t the first time Malaysia’s regulator flagged big names, either. Earlier, the SC had marked eToro, Binance, FintechFX, and OctaFX. The regulator stated that none of these firms had the appropriate licensing to operate within the country.