The Central Bank has issued a warning about a firm trading as Yamazaki Acquisition Group (Japan), which it says is not authorised to operate as an investment business or to provide investment advice.

The regulator pointed out that it is a criminal offence for an unauthorised person or firm to provide financial servoces that rerquire its authorisation. It added that a consumer who deals with an unathorised person or firm would not be protected by the Investor Compensation Scheme in the event of problems.

The Central Bank maintains a list of unauthorised firms on its website: www.centralbank.ie. So far, it has published the names of 269 such companies.