20 June AtoZForex - The Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) - French financial markets regulator, has been undertaking an active program towards policing Binary Options in France and has made numerous announcements and warnings over the recent years. As a part of its regulatory activity, the AMF blacklists 16 Binary Options websites.
Recent attention towards the industry
In recent months, a lot of skeptical attention from media and regulators was given to the binary options industry as there are still a lot of firms that operate outside of the regulations. The regulator decided to take a better look at the industry as the issues related to problems with customer withdrawal requests, matters with best-execution and proper business ethics came to the light.
We know that there is a successful model of the binary options industry in such countries as the United States or Japan. Those regulatory jurisdictions ensure to have proper checks in order to provide safety for customers.
AMF blacklists 16 Binary Options websites: who are they?
The AMF aims to ensure that savings of customers invested in financial services or products are properly protected. The watchdog strives to that by providing the potential investors with adequate and timely information about possible violations. The fact that AMF blacklists 16 Binary Options websites demonstrates regulator's desire to diminish the scams within the industry. Those entities appeared to be providing binary options trading services without proper authorization. Here is the list of recently identified websites:
| Name of the broker | Country | Official URL |
| ABRoption | Netherlands | www.abroption.com |
| Allianz Brokers | Georgia | www.allianz-brokers.com |
| Banque Investissement | Switzerland | www.banque-investissement.com |
| Barclays Traders | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | www.barclaystraders.com |
| Connecting Trade | UK | www.connecting-trade.com |
| Collins Gestion | Samoa | www.collinsgestion.com |
| Financial & General Securities | UK | www.f-generalsecurities.com |
| FINPARI | Scotland/Seychelles | www.finpari.com |
| GO in Trading | UK | www.gointrading.com |
| Interactive Brokers | UK | www.ibl-markets.com |
| Microoption | The Commonwealth of Dominica | www.microption.com |
| MyTradeOption | UK | www.mytradeoption.com |
| Solution Capital | UK | www.solution-capital.com |
| Stock Binary | UK | www.stock-binary.com |
| Switzerland Capital | UK | www.switzerland-capital.com |
| Swiss Partners AG | UK | www.swisspartners-ag.com |
The regulator warns that this list is not exhaustive and it may change very quickly.
How can I check the broker?
A list of all unauthorized websites that offer binary options trading is available on the website of the regulator. According to the watchdog, in order to make sure that the entity is fully authorized to operate in France, you can check the Register of Financial Agents or the list of authorized entities in the Participating Investment Advisor (PIA) or Financial Investment Advisor (FIA) websites.
The regulator warns the potential investors that if the intermediary does not appear on any of the lists, it is strongly recommended not to make use of their services.
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