Authorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French regulator, updated today its list of public warnings concerning websites and investment firms offering binary options trading without proper licenses.
The AMF states that the 21 web addresses listed below are not authorized to offer financial products in France. This also means that these entities are unsuited to offer their products across the European Union, since they have no passported Regulation that can be verified. The announcement refers to the following websites:
abbeystockbroker.com, angels-investors.com, attractivetrade.com, bestepargne.com, bfm-capitals.com, brokersoptions-markets.com, brooks-partners.com, capital-epargne.com, cfebourse.com, etrade-securities.com, finances-capital.com, insta-trading.com, investmentswiss.com, invest-option.com, markets-central-investment.com, option-capitalmarket.com, rbsbourse.com, solution-invest.com, swiss-banque.com, total-options.com, tradecapital.net.
The entities listed above offer their clients investments in binary options, which according to the French watchdog they do not have the authorization to provide. It is a popular practice amongst such firms to lure in potential customers with promises of quick profits on the financial markets. Such entities rarely offer appropriate warnings to their clients regarding the inherent risks related to engaging in transactions on the market.
The binary options industry has come under a lot of scrutiny lately after the regulators in Israel and Canada publicly voiced their concerns about the product. This week Finance Magnates reported that the Israeli Securities Authority (ISA) officially announced the end of binary options trading in the country. Brokers that want to maintain their authorization with the regulator have been given 30 days to remove binary options from their offerings.
Canadian authorities have been proactively warning about a number of brands throughout the years, however after identifying that they cannot keep up with the growing number of firms that are providing their services to clients in the country, the umbrella organization covering all of the country's thirteen provincial regulators has issued a statement outlining that Canadian residents should avoid the product altogether.
Another warning was issued by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC), one of the thirteen local Canadian market regulators. The OSC warned against CherryTrade brokerage, which allegedly does not have the necessary authorization to provide financial services in Canada.
