The article was updated on 17 February, 2020 by Amicus.
26 June, 2019 | AtoZ Markets - The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) has jumped on the bandwagon of European regulators who are making plans to place a permanent ban on binary options in Poland come 2 July 2019. The ban of binary options in Poland will include a prohibition on the marketing, distribution or sale of binary options to retail investors,” as per the press release.
Regulator KNF Announces Permanent Ban on Binary Options
Like several other regulators in Europe, like Denmark and Ireland, who have already imposed a ban on binary options, KNF believes that some investment products are damaging the interests of domestic traders. It noted that binary options are high-risk speculative products offer to retail investors, which are a cause of concern.
In a press release, the regulator said that the PFSA considers the characteristics of binary options as speculative investments. The products are also similar to betting and gambling. However, this indicates that investing in binary options brings a very high risk of losses for retail clients.
ESMA Has Placed Temporary Restrictions
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has placed temporary restrictions on the binary options industry. Moreover, it proposed new leverage restrictions on forex and other trading activities. These moves also designed to put forth guidelines to help local regulators create more stringent rules.
The Netherlands and the UK have also proposed permanent bans on retail selling, marketing, and distribution of binary options. At the moment, other regulators in Europe are also considering similar moves. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) didn’t stop at banning regular binary options. But it put restrictions on securitized binary options, which excluded from the ESMA guidelines.
ESMA rules were temporary. But regulators now believe that the best way to tackle the problem is to bring a permanent ban on binary options. The announcements would not bring any change to investors and firms of binary options in Poland or the UK. They were already complying with the norms devised by the ESMA.
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