BitWest Group Review: Why Did FCA Ban the Brokerage?

There are many reasons why a regulator would ban some brokerage. Details of this particular one will be elaborated on in our unbiased BitWest Group review.

Make sure you stick with us until the end. We’ll do our best to provide you with sufficient information as well as details about possible fund recovery.

Is BitWest Group a Regulated Forex and Crypto Broker?

BitWest Group has quite a nice website presentation. The company is telling us all about its operations dating back to 1994. They represent themselves as the “leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider in financial products.”

However, they don’t elaborate on the owner, headquarters, or anything of relevance. The only thing we can rely on is the statement in the Terms and Conditions, referring to the law of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as the governing law. However, this country has no official regulator of Forex brokers. In fact, FSA strictly directs broker companies to opt for a license in the country of service before attempting to register offshore.

Since BitWest Group is clearly unregulated, they can’t register their business in SVG. Hence, the lack of details about the owner’s name. This is good enough for us to understand that being involved with this company is dangerous for your money.

Warning Issued by Financial Authorities

The UK FCA has issued an official warning regarding BitWest Group broker. According to their notice from the 19th of May, 2023, the authority says this company has no approval to offer financial services to UK residents.

Therefore, it’s clear that officials agree with us. This investment firm is a bogus scheme, and you should avoid it by all means.

Traders’ Opinion of BitWest Group

We turned to Trustpilot as our source of traders’ opinions. The company is rated average with 43 reviews at the time of writing. However, 47% of them are 1-star, meaning the score will surely decrease.

According to most recent comments, the broker transfers customer funds to a Binance account, then to their own wallet. If you succeed and make a profit, they’ll ask you to pay for financial verification and even claim they’re from Binance support. It’s a typical hit-and-run trading scam you ought to avoid.

Countries Of Service

Now that we know how BitWest Group operates, let’s see where they do it. According to web traffic analysis, the majority of victims come from:

• UK,
• Germany,
• Netherlands,
• Serbia.

Each of these has its own respective regulator, and any does not approve our scammer here. They registered the domain in the GoDaddy WHOIS database on the 8th of March, 2023, and already earned a negative reputation.

Available Trading Platforms

Once you register, you can access BitWest Group’s trading platform. It’s a basic WebTrader we’ve seen before, with similar scams such as Definite Area.

On the left side, you can find an asset overview, while on the right side, you can see traders’ sentiments about the asset and place buy/sell position. You can find a basic candlestick chart with several indicators in the middle. However, no special features such as Stop Loss, social trading, or bots exist.

This software cannot be compared to far more superior alternatives such as MT4, MT5, and cTrader. With any of these, you’d get a mobile app and access to the most advanced features and add-ons.

Trading Instruments on Offer

The company offers trading in the following assets:

• Currency pairs – EUR/USD, USD/NOK, AUD/SEK
• Commodities – gold, coffee, natural gas
• Indices – AU200, DAX30, CAC40
• Shares – Adidas, Adobe, HSBC
• Cryptocurrencies – BCH, USDT, USDC

Leverage, Spreads, and Fees

However, they don’t disclose details about commissions and trading costs. The platform shows 0.2 pips for EUR/USD pair, which is quite solid, but not necessarily true. Once you deposit funds, the spread might change. Additionally, leverage is not disclosed, meaning you don’t know the risks.

Account Types – What’s the Difference?

There’s an extensive list of seven different account types, as follows:

• Basic – $250
• Bronze – $5,001
• Silver – $15,001
• Gold – $50,001
• Platinum – $150,001
• Diamond – $500,001
• Black – $1M+

As you can tell, price gaps are not small. However, all you get is more free withdrawals and alleged financial advisers. Knowing that the company is not licensed, it’s clear that it cannot provide any kind of financial services.

In addition, the Demo account is not enabled, meaning you will have to pay the minimum deposit just to test the system.

BitWest Group Withdrawals – How Can I Get My Money Back?

We have to admit that we were discouraged after reading the reviews. We don’t believe getting the withdrawal is possible at this point. In addition to customer stories, the company has some malicious clauses to prevent you from payouts.

For instance, if you accept a bonus, you cannot request a withdrawal before reaching the minimum trading volume: bonus amount divided by two in standard lots. So, suppose you got a $200 bonus; you need to trade 100 lots, equal to $1 million.

The Refund Policy is entirely blank, meaning you cannot get a refund under any circumstances. As per payment options, the company advertises debit/credit cards and bank transfers. Considering that everything so far has been phony, we cannot trust this either.

What Should I Do If I Was Scammed by BitWest Group?

Online trading is only profitable if you can withdraw the money. Otherwise, you can see virtual earnings on your screen and nothing else. This often happens if you deal with scammers such as BitWest Group.

If you cannot get a payout, book a free consultation with our chargeback experts. We’ll gladly assist with the matter and find a way to help! It’s not all lost; we’re on your side!