Editor’s Note
The French regulator has expanded its crackdown to include unauthorized diamond investment platforms, adding 46 websites to its blacklist. This follows similar actions against forex and binary options sites, underscoring the ongoing risks in unregulated online investment schemes.
Following forex and binary options, investment diamonds now have their own blacklist. The French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) has identified 46 websites operating without authorization.
Pressure is mounting on platforms offering diamond investments. The AMF has just unveiled a blacklist of sites proposing diamond investments without the necessary authorizations and compliance with current regulations. This is actually the first blacklist concerning sellers of investment diamonds, stemming from recent regulatory changes. With the implementation of the Sapin 2 law, many financial products as atypical as they are risky, such as diamonds, wine, precious metals, rare earths…, now fall under the regulatory scope of the stock market watchdog.
As such, platforms offering diamond investments must have a registration number issued by the AMF. The AMF controls, in particular, the existence of sufficient guarantees regarding the quality of the intermediary (integrity, competence, experience, conflicts of interest…). The intermediary must also hold a dedicated bank account for transactions, have its activity validated by an independent expert, and provide numerous guarantees and certificates… A real upheaval in a sector rife with scams. Clearly, few platforms have met the AMF’s new requirements.
The blacklist of diamond platforms revealed by the authority reports 46 companies alerted to the new obligations but which continue to operate without authorization. It can be consulted online. It includes traditionvendome.com, the new name of the platform traditiondiamant.com, well known to the general public following a major advertising campaign on television, on TF1, Canal+, C8 or BFMTV. This shows that even companies with a high-profile presence – this firm is located on Place Vendôme – are not necessarily in compliance.
