In accordance with section 37 (4) of the German Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz – KWG), BaFin would like to make clear that MainTrade does not have authorisation under the KWG to conduct banking business or provide financial services. The company is not supervised by BaFin.
The information provided on the company’s website, maintrade.co, gives reasonable grounds to suspect that MainTrade is conducting banking business and providing 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 granted authorisation 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 in order to identify fraud attempts at an early stage.