Federal Financial Supervisory Authority

Year 2002Regulated by Government

Prior to 2002, in Germany the regulation of the financial industry was undertaken by three separate agencies. In May 2002 BaFin was formed, following the passing of the Financial Services and Integration Act. The aim of the Act and the merging of the three agencies was to create one integrated financial regulator that would be able to cover all financial markets. The agencies that merged together were the Federal Banking Supervisory Office, the Federal Supervisory Office for Securities Trading, and the Federal Insurance Supervisory Office.BaFin was given further responsibility following the passing of the Banking Act in 2003 with the aim of increasing customer protection and improving the reputation of the German financial system. The extra powers included monitoring the credit-worthiness of financial institutions and collecting detailed information about them. This particular area of responsibility was shared with the Bundesbank. Currently, BaFin is experiencing a kind of transition, as the responsibility for banking supervision is being taken over by the European Central Bank.

Disclose broker
Danger Unauthorized
Disclosure summary
  • Disclosure matching Website matching
  • Disclosure time 2022-09-19
  • Reason for punishment The company is not supervised by BaFin.
Disclosure details

Trading platform gtsfinancial.net: BaFin investigates GTS Financial LLC

19.09.2022 | Topic Unauthorised business Trading platform gtsfinancial.net: BaFin investigates GTS Financial LLC GTS Financial LLC contacts German investors and recommends specific shares. The company also operates a trading platform with the following domain: gtsfinancial.net. In accordance with section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG), BaFin would like to make clear that GTS Financial LLC, USA, has not been granted authorisation under the KWG to conduct banking business or provide financial services. The company is not supervised by BaFin. The company mentions two business addresses in the USA on its website. The website also refers to additional alleged business addresses in Denmark and Belgium. In addition, the company claims on its website that it is regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but this cannot be verified. The information provided on the website gtsfinancial.net and the information and documents available to BaFin give reasonable grounds to suspect that the platform is being used to conduct banking business and/or provide financial services in Germany without the required authorisation. Companies that conduct banking business or provide financial services in Germany require authorisation under the KWG. However, some companies operate without the necessary authorisation. Information on whether a particular company has been authorised by BaFin can be found in BaFin’s database of companies. 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 to avoid becoming the victim of fraud.
Annex