ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of Biosenic, ISIN BE0974280126 on Euronext Brussels will re-open on 19/02/2025 at 09:00 CET.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of Biosenic, ISIN BE0974280126, on Euronext Brussels is suspended on the request of the company from 18/02/2025 at 9:00 CET until the publication of a press release.

This agreed settlement consists of the payment of 12,500 euros and the publication, by name, on the website of the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA).This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

FWU Life Insurance Lux S.A. is a Luxembourg insurance company that is registered with the Luxembourg supervisory body, the Commissariat aux Assurances.On 3 February 2025, the Commissariat aux Assurances announced that the Luxembourg Court has ordered the dissolution and liquidation of the FWU. This news article is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of GIMV, ISIN BE0003699130 on Euronext Brussels will re-open on 07/02/2025 at 14:00 CET.

In this first AMLCO newsletter of 2025, the FSMA is focusing on the third edition of its AMLCO Day. This took place virtually  on 11 December 2024 and took the ‘AML Package’ as its central topic. The FSMA is delighted at the success of the third edition. More than 2300 people attended the webinar.During the event, the FSMA drew the attention of all AMLCOs to the principal changes in the new regulatory texts as regards the obligations applicable to their entities for the struggle against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT). The FSMA also enjoyed the collaboration of the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) and the Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTIF-CFI). The NBB focused on the functioning and competencies of the future European Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AMLA). The CTIF-CFI addressed the impact of the new texts on financial intelligence processing units.Read our newsletter (available in French and Dutch only) 

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of GIMV, ISIN BE0003699130, on Euronext Brussels is suspended on the request of the company from 07/02/2025 at 9:00 CET until the publication of a press release.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of Codic International, ISIN BE0002825066 - ISIN BE0002710912, will re-open on 05/02/2025 at 09:00 CET.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns the public against the activities of scammers who usurp the name and the logo of the FSMA and other financial supervisors to mislead consumers. This is a well-known fraud technique, for which ESMA also published a warning.Fraudsters claim that the FSMA can help victims of investment fraud to recover or unblock the money they lost. For this service, the fraudsters ask the victims for compensation or for the payment of a tax to the FSMA. In some cases, the scammers even claim that fraud victims would have to pay a fine to the FSMA. This form of fraud is called recovery room fraud. In particular, consumers are often contacted by Protectionline, a phantom company operating through the website https://protectionline.net/. This company contacts victims of investment fraud and claims it can help them recover lost funds. To this end, the victim must submit a claim for compensation to be supposedly approved by the FSMA. The victim is then redirected to websites that look exactly like the FSMA website: https://regulatory-legal.systems/, https://regulatory-payout.systems/ and https://regulatory-transfer.systems/. These websites are completely fake and have no connection with the FSMA. The URL of the FSMA’s official website is www.fsma.be.The FSMA also noticed that its logo is sometimes added to fraudulent websites to give the impression that a given entity is authorized by the FSMA to offer financial services.The scammers use the following websites and email addresses: datapotection@fsma-sup.ccfsma1@europe.comfsma@service-inf.cominfo@monetarydemands.siter.keppler@fsma-financial.comsupport@fsma-regulatory.netEmails from these or similar addresses are fraudulent. Do not respond to such emails but delete them. The emails do not come from the FSMA. The official email addresses of the FSMA always end with @fsma.be.The FSMA will never contact you out of the blue or ask you to transfer money. Nor will it ever ask you for confidential information such as the PIN code of your bank card or a password. Consumers who receive unsolicited emails must be extremely careful. Be sure not to respond to any requests to transfer money for (financial) services or products that the FSMA is said to offer.The FSMA is not competent to recover lost investments or to ask for payment for any such a service. Nor is it competent to demand payment for taxes. It will never contact investors in this regard. The FSMA will also never ask consumers to provide their financial information or to pay for any services. Any doubts about the person who has contacted you? Check the information about the FSMA here.These are the official contact details for the FSMA:Website: www.fsma.beAdress: Rue du Congrès/Congresstraat 12-14, 1000 BrusselsCompany number: 0544.279.965Our phone numbers always begin with +32 (0)2 220 XX XX. Our emails end with @fsma.be. These are the FSMA’s official social media addresses:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/fsmaX (Twitter): twitter.com/FSMA_info Feel free to contact the FSMA directly via the contact form.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns the public against the activities of unauthorized lenders who offer consumers fake credit.The FSMA has identified 18 new fraudulent lenders who offer fake credit to Belgian consumers via the internet. Consumers come into contact with such providers in a variety of ways: they receive unsolicited messages via email or social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.) or find advertisements online. Given the current economic situation, consumers often search for extra funds in the form of credit, and as a result may come into contact with questionable players.In practice, these involve fake credit that is offered to consumers in order to coax consumers into giving them money. The fraudsters claim to be authorized lenders or registered credit intermediaries, and do not hesitate to use the names or logos of well-known credit institutions. In such cases, this is considered to be a case of ‘cloned firm’ fraud.The fraudsters offer loans at very attractive conditions. For example, the credit provider claims to lend large amounts at a low interest rate. It also claims that there will be no credit check on the consumer to determine whether he or she is a poor payer who has taken out loans in the past which he or she was unable to repay.Consumers who accept the credit offer are asked to pay some costs associated with the credit up front. These may be presented as an insurance premium to cover the lender against default on the loan, file handling costs, administrative costs, etc. But these are all fictitious costs.Once the consumers have paid these so-called costs, the ‘lender’ disappears into thin air and it is nearly impossible to recover the sums paid.The FSMA therefore strongly advises not to take up such credit offers.The illegally operating companies against which the FSMA warns the public are as follows:Beauliard Groupe (www.beauliard-groupe.com);                    BS Kredit (www.best-servicekredit.com); Cash Lening (www.cashlening.com); Finance Antalex (www.finance.antalex.net); Finaura (www.finaura-group.com);Kredit Inter (www.kredit-inter.com); Laverdiesten (www.laverdiesten.com); Lening Plus Krediet (www.leningplus.com);LF Krediet Snel Groep (www.lfkredietsnelgroep.com); Neovixunion (www.neovixunion.com); Pirabk financieringsmaatschappij (www.pirabk.com); Plus Finanzen (www.plusfinanzen.com); Pret Collaboratif (www.prtcorporatif.com); Snel Financiering financieringsmaatschappij (www.snelfinanciering.com); Snellening (www.snellening.be); Solidariteit Dienst Financien (www.solidariteit-dienstfinancien.com); Swift Fundings (www.swiftfundings.com); Universum Krediet (www.universumkredit.com). ***The FSMA has a number of general recommendations to enable you to recognize such fraudulent credit offers:Be suspicious if you are suddenly offered credit out of the blue via the internet or social media.Beware of any offers of credit on very favourable terms (a loan that is very large in relation to the consumer’s financial situation, at a very low interest rate or with an unusually long repayment period, etc.) that would not usually be available from authorized lenders.Be all the more suspicious if the lender makes the credit subject to the payment of a sum of money intended to cover certain costs before the credit will be granted. The justifications given for such a payment can vary: they may be called an insurance premium with a view to insuring the lender against default on the loan, file handling costs, authentication costs, administrative costs, etc. These costs are purely fictitious. Once the money has been paid, the ‘lender’ disappears and the victim never recovers the money transferred.Enquire whether the lender has the necessary authorization or registration. Via the search function on the FSMA’s website, you can easily determine whether this person has the necessary authorization or registration. Persons without an authorization or registration may not offer you credit.Consider doing a search for the person using the customary search engines. You may find testimonials by people who have already been approached by the same person. But remain alert, as sometimes these are falsely positive testimonials posted by the company itself in order to gain the confidence of consumers.More than ever, prudence is necessary. In case of any doubt, and before making any (more) payments, do not hesitate to contact the FSMA directly using the consumer contact form on its website. As well, please feel free to notify the FSMA of any contact with a suspicious company that has not yet been the subject of a warning by the FSMA.

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) warns the public against the activities of Derwent Investments, a company engaging in unauthorized activities on the Belgian market.Derwent Investments is not an authorized investment firm in Belgium. It is therefore not allowed to provide investment services in Belgium.The FSMA therefore strongly advises against responding to any offer of financial services made by Derwent Investments and against transferring money to any account number it might mention.Moreover, according to the information available to the FSMA, the activities proposed could be of a fraudulent nature, i.e. boiler room fraud.Boiler room fraud is a type of fraud that generally involves contacting consumers unsolicited, often by telephone, offering to sell them shares or other financial products. In recent times, the services being offered have grown ever more diverse. Products and services currently being offered also include: management accounts, term deposit accounts, investment advice, investments in crowdfunding, etc.Although boiler rooms claim to be authorized service providers, with a professional website and forms to fill out, they are in reality fraudsters who offer fictitious or worthless products or services.As a rule, the consumer is enticed to make an initial, limited investment that very soon appears to be profitable. After that, the consumer is asked to make more and more additional investments. But when a consumer asks for his or her money back, this proves to be impossible without making additional payments and/or the new investments begin to lose money.The fraudsters often put the consumer under severe pressure (hence the term "boiler room"), insisting that they keep making further payments. In the end, the consumer will never get the invested money back.More information on this form of fraud is available in the general warning published by the FSMA on 11 December 2024.Would you like to enquire more generally as to whether a transaction being proposed complies with the financial legislation? Please use the search function on the FSMA website. You can also contact the FSMA directly via the consumer contact form.

The FSMA conducted inspections of 8 currency exchange offices registered in Belgium, in order to verify compliance with the legislation to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing (“ML/FT”). The inspections covered the entire Belgian sector of currency exchange offices.The ensuing report sets out the main elements of the applicable legal framework, goes into the most significant observations made by the FSMA and emphasizes good practices that contribute to compliance with the preventive ML/FT legislation.Read the observations (available in French - Dutch only)

The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has published the first edition of the quarterly FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard, with key figures on equity trading, ETF trading and bond trading by Belgian retail investors at entities under FSMA supervision.As of early 2018, the FSMA has been receiving information on transactions in financial instruments in the context of the European MiFIR Regulation. Following upon previous studies on the behaviour of Belgian investors, the FSMA is now launching the first edition of the FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard. This new publication, which will be released every three months, is part of the FSMA's ongoing monitoring of the developments on financial markets. The dashboard begins with a number of fixed core charts (which will be updated with each periodic publication), followed by a variable section with changing content. The first edition contains data up to and including the third quarter of 2024.Growing investor interest in the first half of 2024In the first half of 2024, there were more active equity investors and ETF investors than in 2023. In the second quarter of 2024, around 170,000 Belgian investors traded listed shares, a 15% increase compared to the same period in 2023. The number of ETF investors also increased significantly: a record high 57,000 Belgian investors traded ETFs, a number almost double that of the second quarter of 2023. By contrast, about 21,000 Belgian investors traded bonds, which represents a decrease of 30% compared to the second quarter of 2023.Followed by a slowdown in investor activity in the third quarter of 2024In the third quarter of 2024, the number of active equity investors decreased to approximately 142,000, a decline of more than 15% compared to the previous quarter. The number of ETF investors remained stable. During that quarter, 14,000, 12,000, and 4,000 Belgian investors traded for the first time in listed shares, ETFs or bonds respectively. Compared to the same period in 2023, this represents a stabilization for equities, a sharp increase for new ETF investors and a strong decrease for bonds.In the third quarter of 2024, Belgian retail investors, as a group, remained net buyers of stock, ETFs and bonds: for each of these three types of financial instruments, there were more buy transactions than sell transactions. In total, Belgian retail investors carried out around 1,060,000 stock transactions in the third quarter of 2024. This group also carried out about 166,000 ETF transactions and almost 30,000 bond transactions. There are significantly higher transaction numbers for stocks, despite the clearly increasing success of ETFs. Since the beginning of 2024, approximately 50% more ETF transactions have been carried out each quarter compared to the end of 2023. By contrast, investing in individual bonds seems to have peaked: since the beginning of 2024, bond transaction numbers fell by about 30% on a quarterly basis compared to the last quarter of 2023.Median transaction value highest for bondsThe FSMA strives to conclude each edition of the FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard with an editorial section that looks in greater detail at a specific target group, trend or development. This gives the FSMA the opportunity to cover a current topic or inform the public about a broader subject. The focus in the first edition indicates that the median transaction value of a stock order is about 1,500 euros, compared to 1,100 - 1,300 euros for a typical ETF transaction and 10,000 to 13,000 euros for a typical bond transaction. The average bond investor is in his or her sixties, the average stock investor in his or her fifties and the average ETF investor in his or her forties. Over time, the age gap between stock and ETF investors in particular has increased, due mostly to a sharp decline in the average age of ETF investors.Jean-Paul Servais, Chairman of the FSMA, commented: “The new FSMA Retail Investor Dashboard demonstrates the FSMA’s ability to apply advanced data analysis techniques to big data, thus publishing key figures that provide the market with a clear overview of stock, ETF and bond trading.”Find out more about this in the dashboard and in our videos (short version (available in French - Dutch only) and full video (available in French - Dutch only)).

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of Nextensa, ISIN BE0003770840 on Euronext Brussels will re-open on 22/01/2025 at 13:00 CET.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of Nextensa, ISIN BE0003770840, on Euronext Brussels is suspended on the request of the company from 22/01/2025 at 11:34 CET until the publication of a press release.

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) for the financial sector officially took effect on 17 January 2025.The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has taken this opportunity to issue a publication detailing the obligations of financial entities regarding the maintenance of the information register of ICT third-party service providers and the reporting of major ICT incidents.  The FSMA’s publication sets out in detail the scope of the Regulation and the specific rules for complying with those obligations.This news article is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) for the financial sector officially took effect on 17 January 2025.The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has taken this opportunity to issue a publication detailing the obligations of financial entities to maintain information registers of their ICT third-party service providers and to report on major ICT-related incidents.The FSMA’s publication sets out in detail the scope of the Regulation and the specific rules for complying with those obligations.This news article is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

The FSMA has today published an update to its report on costs in the second and third pillar pensions (available in French - Dutch only). The new data indicate that the costs charged by financial institution for pension products have generally remained stable. Reporting on costs enables the FSMA to identify the insurance products with the highest costs. The legislation and regulations in this area require insurance companies to offer products that provide consumers with sufficient ‘value for money’. The FSMA has therefore started to examine the practices of insurance companies that offer the most expensive pension products. High costs have a significant impact on the return on the product, and thus require particular attention.This press release is not available in English. Please consult the French or Dutch site.

In November 2024, the FSMA conducted a second survey to determine how prepared financial entities are for the application of the EU regulation known as DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act), which begins on 17 January 2025. The DORA Regulation sets ambitious objectives in the area of digital operational resilience. The aim of the Regulation is to protect financial entities and their clients.The results of the survey indicate that many financial entities are on the right track to meet the objectives laid down in DORA, but still need to make significant efforts to be fully in compliance with this Regulation.Read more in Communication FSMA_2025_01 (available in Dutch and French only)

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND MARKETS AUTHORITY, PUBLISHED IN APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 78 OF THE LAW OF 21 NOVEMBER 2017Trading in the financial instruments of XIOR, ISIN BE0974288202, on Euronext Brussels will re-open on 17/01/2025 at 09:00 CET.