The Financial Supervision Commission has launched a procedure to cancel the license of investment broker Global Markets LTD, the watchdog says on its website.

Website Dnevnik.bg cites complaints "from Bulgaria and abroad" as a reason for the Commission's decision to open the procedure.

Global Markets obtained a permit to operate in 2008, but the watchdog says a number of violations were found after a thorough inspection in May which led the regulator to request that it stop attending new customers and officially announce its activity is to come to an end.

Some media reports suggest Global Markets could have been behind the surge of panic incited among customers of certain Bulgarian banks which prompted them to withdraw their savings last week, but no evidence has been found.

The Commission has not announced any relation between the suspension of license, which was triggered by earlier developments, and the probe it started last week into the bank rumors affair.