The AMF is warning the public against several companies proposing “atypical” investments without being authorized to do so
The Autorité des Marchés Financiers regularly updates its black lists of new websites and entities “proposing atypical investments to investors in France without being authorized to do so.”
Here is the list of the new websites recently identified in the atypical investments category:
- www.inaia.fr
- login.easyinvest1.fr
- fiouest.com
Any offer to invest in miscellaneous assets “must be registered with the AMF to be marketed. The white list of offers recorded in miscellaneous assets is available on the AMF website.”
Since January 1, 2024, the AMF has “added 3 names to its list of sites not authorized to offer atypical investments in ‘gold’.”
Since the creation, in 2017, of this black list, which “identified websites that were illegally offering diamonds for investment, the AMF has added more than 400 unauthorized internet addresses to this list, in various categories like livestock, wines or champagne.”
The list of all sites not authorized “to offer investments in various goods is available on the AMF website (section: Retail Investors → Warnings → Blacklists) and on the Assurance Banque Épargne Info Service – ABEIS website (section: Prévention arnaques → Listes noires et alertes des autorités).”
The AMF also noted that this list is updated regularly but “does not claim to be exhaustive, as new unauthorized actors appear regularly. In addition, the registration decisions issued by the AMF can be consulted on the AMF website.”
In another update from earlier this month, it was noted that the AMF calls on investment services providers “to take account of the specific nature of temporary ownership dismemberment when marketing SCPI units”
Protecting investors is the AMF’s top strategic priority.
During a series of short, thematic inspections “at four distributor institutions, the AMF found that very little attention was paid to the specific features of temporary ownership dismemberment in the provision of investment services involving units in real estate investment companies (SCPIs). In its summary, it recalls the regulations, explains its expectations, and highlights the good and poor practices observed.”
Temporary ownership dismemberment splits ownership rights “between bare ownership on the one hand, and usufruct on the other, over a predefined period.”
This particular method of subscribing “to SCPI units, to meet the specific needs of some investors, adds complexity to an investment in what is already a complex financial instrument, such that distributor institutions must be particularly vigilant about complying with the rules on investors’ protection laid down by MiFID II.”
Carried out between April and August 2023, short, thematic audits, known as SPOT (Supervision of Operational and Thematic Practices), analyzed “how institutions took account of the specific features of this subscription method when marketing SCPI units.”
The AMF focused on how “the specific features of temporary ownership dismemberment were taken into account in the system that manages subscriptions to SCPI units, in addition to the characteristics of the dismemberment itself, and the management of potential conflicts of interest and the compliance system.”