The Sanctions Committee of the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) recently fined British Makor Group’s Paris entity (“Makor Securities Paris”) and its director Yankel Hassan €850,000 (approximately $1 million) for regulatory failings. The Sanctions Committee also issued warnings to each of them. The Committee announced, on January 22, 2026, that the fines were imposed after an AMF review conducted from September 1, 2021 to March 7, 2024 revealed that the investment services provider had failed to comply with certain conditions of a business plan that was approved by the AMF in 2019 and authorized by the French Prudential Control and Resolution Authority in 2020. Specifically, the AMF found that Makor Securities Paris allegedly failed to meet certain conditions of the authorization that enabled the firm to continue operations in the European Union, including the implementation of an automated system for detecting market abuse; the employment of a full-time compliance officer for investment services; and a broker located in the European Union to execute transactions.
The AMF also reported that it discovered deficiencies in the company’s market abuse detection system that prevented it from effectively detecting market abuses by clients and reporting suspicious transactions to the AMF. The Commission also determined, among other things, that Makor Securities Paris conducted no audits of external providers in 2021 and conducted inadequate audits in 2022 and 2023. All of the identified deficiencies were attributed to Hassan’s leadership. According to the AMF, Makor Securities Paris was fined €700,000 ($830,000), and Hassan was fined €150,000 ($177,000).