The Superintendence of Financial Services of the bank asked Integración Agropecuaria to stop promoting investments in cattle over the internet.
The company Agricultural Integration was instructed by the Superintendence of Financial Services of the Central Bank of Uruguay (BCU) to stop advertising investment promotions in livestock because the company refused to present the documentation demanded by the regulatory entity.
On May 23 the Superintendency of Financial Services issued a resolution requesting the company Integración Agropecuaria information about its identification data, its main activity, its legal form and accounting statements as well as about the products it offers – financial services and agribusiness – and a copy of all contracts, particularly those that will be signed soon.
In the resolution, the superintendency also reported that the company offered, among its products, investment in cattle and an investment simulator, as well as through its social networks, specifically Facebook, where they advertised having managed capital of more than 50 clients with an amount greater than 20 million dollars.
For the BCU, this investment promotion activity through its social networks and website represents receiving money from individuals based on a call that does not provide elements to show that it is a financial business. On the other hand, he added that the company promises a fixed return, thus offering an impersonal appeal to savings.
The company’s response and the BCU’s final decision
Faced with this, the company responded that there were no “contracts involving Agricultural Integration, nor is it advertised” and that social networks are not used to make publications, advertisements, or offers, or promote any product or service to customers. From then on, the company repeatedly refused to present the documentation requested by the BCU regulatory entity.
In response, the BCU instructed the company to “cessation of all communication directed to the general public and in an impersonal way” in relation to cattle or livestock investments, as well as any type of product that seeks to attract financial resources from the public, until the requested documentation is submitted.
Source: Ambito
