Warning to borrowers over firms that have no authority to offer loans

It also told investors to avoid another firm that is fraudulently representing itself as an entity licensed to do investment business in this country.

Eleven warning notices were issued by the regulator yesterday, indicating that illegal entities are stepping up their activities here.

There are fears these firms are not interested in issuing legitimate loans or investing money on consumers’ behalf, but are instead intent on defrauding people.

Financial adviser John Lowe warned consumers to be alert.

“When you are dealing with any financial advisory firm, you should get terms of business telling you who they represent and what they charge. If you do not get that, avoid the firm like the plague,” he said.

Mr Lowe, author of the Money Doctors 2023 personal finance guide, said consumers would have statutory protections only if they dealt with firms regulated by the Central Bank.

It is a criminal offence for an unauthorised firm or person to provide financial services in Ireland that would require an authorisation under the relevant legislation, which the Central Bank is the responsible body for enforcing.

Eight operations posing as authorised lenders have been named by the Central Bank.

These firms are advertising loans in Ireland, but they do not have authorisation from the Central Bank as a retail credit firm, which is the designation used to indicate a licensed lender.

They include Ronnie Finance Limited, which the regulator said was operating as a retail credit firm without authorisation. It has cloned the legitimate details of a Central Bank authorised firm and was operating the website, ronniefinance.ltd.

Other firms with no authorisation to issue loans include Greenacres Macro Finance, MB Finance Services, Nolly Funding, Greg Refinancing Loan Offer, Asia Loan Company Ltd, Financial Service Offer/Dr James Eric Finance Pvt Ltd and Housing Finance Limited.

Starling Car Insurance has been operating as an insurance/reinsurance intermediary in the absence of appropriate authorisations.

The Central Bank said Mynet-Coin (UK, Germany) had been operating as an investment firm in the absence of appropriate authorisations.

What the regulator said was a “fraudulent entity” – calling itself Legal & General Investment Managers (Europe) Limited and fraudulently representing itself as LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited, which is an entity legitimately authorised by the Central Bank – has been claiming to be an investment firm in the absence of authorisation.

The regulator said: “In this instance, the fraudulent entity cloned a legitimate Central Bank authorised entity in order to deceive consumers. The scam entity reached out to consumers via email seeking to sell fake investments.”

It is touting what it calls Legal & General Fixed Term Bond Prospectus 2023 and Legal & General Green Future Bond Prospectus 2023.

The Central Bank said fraudsters were increasingly using legitimate firms’ details to add an air of legitimacy to their fraud. This typically involves the firm cold-calling members of the public.

The fraudsters will ‘borrow’ some or all of the legitimate information of an authorised firm. They may quote authorisation numbers and links to seemingly legitimate websites and even provide the real address of an authorised firm.

A list of unauthorised firms published to date is available on the Central Bank’s website.