The FinancialThe Russian Central Bank has published statistics on customer complaints it has received in the first 9 months of this year against financial services firms, including Forex dealers, which provide licensed OTC FX services to Russian residents.
While the amount of complaints received in general was 182,500, representing a drop of 4.2% from the same period last year, it is important to note that complaints regarding professional market participants (which includes FX brokers) totaled only 700, which is almost 30% lower than in the same period in 2018. And the amount of complaints received against OTC FX brokers was a mere 34 complaints in total.
One may think this is a result of stringent FX regulations that have been in place in Russia for several years now, aimed at protecting traders and establishing a fair and regulated playing field for brokers. Nonetheless, a recent survey conducted by the Financial Commission has shown that the current FX regulations in Russia are actually pushing traders away from licensed brokers in Russia to open accounts in ‘offshore’ regions, including Europe, the UK and elsewhere.
As such, the lower amount of complaints received by the Central Bank may actually be a sign that customers have flocked to other jurisdictions, in many cases having more reasonable and comfortable trading conditions with ‘offshore’ brokers. This in turn actually hurts the prospect of protecting trading by the Russia’s main financial regulatory body and one would hope that Russians are trading with reputable brokerages elsewhere to ensure the safety of their funds and accounts.