ESMA to Renew Ban on Binary Options Again!!

Madysepanganahi

If you are (or were) a binary options trader in Europe, you are doubtless aware that binary options have been banned across the entire European Union by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Rather than declaring the ban to last forever, the ESMA has been renewing it every three months since it was introduced. Now it has decided to renew the ban yet again.

The most recent renewal took place on October 2, 2018, and covers the three-month period lasting until January 2, 2019. The renewal will therefore go into effect on January 2, and will last for an additional three months.

You can read about the decision in a press release from the ESMA. Explaining the reason for the renewal, the press release stated, “ESMA has carefully considered the need to extend the intervention measure currently in effect. It considers that a significant investor protection concern related to the offer of binary options to retail clients continues to exist.”

At this point, it seems likely that the ESMA will continue with the renewals on the ban for the indefinite future.

The_Geek_MH

yep, they sure will, until there is a better way to do binary than the old platforms where you bet against the broker.

Malvrid

I have seen this also. I am not quite sure what is general rational behind such decision? BOs can be freely traded on other markets. Is it possible to solve this issue with an offshore account? Has anybody already done this?

TobiasRobinson

The ban is just a lazy way to claim to have 'fixed' the problem of binary scams. It actually resolves nothing but ESMA can pretend it does.

The scammers were comfortable breaking the law before the ban, they are equally happy to break it now. So they have not stopped. The only brokers withdrawing binaries for European customers were the responsible ones. There has been a move from binary scams into crypto scams, but that is not really a 'fix'.

The real solution is to identify and prosecute the scam websites.

There are however, ways for European traders to avoid the ESMA ban, but it does mean signing away any regulatory protection, and you need to meet certain criteria: How to avoid the ESMA ban.