French Watchdog Adds Eleven Binary Options Brands to Blacklist

France’s financial market regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), has today issued a warning to the public against eleven more binary options brands. The watchdog routinely updates its periodic blacklist of websites that offer binary options trading, "for which no authorized investment services provider could be clearly identified.”

The brands mentioned in the AMF's notice today include: the London based French language site, Bank of Invest; the already inoperative website of Bloomex Options; Groupe Binary, whose website now only displays a down for maintenance notice; London based IGM-Financial; Inglobal Markets; London Brokers Options; PRIVAT-EPARGNE; Success Bank; Super Options; Tradarea; and TX-Markets.

According to the information available on the websites of all the brands, at least those that are currently operative, none of them are regulated anywhere in the world. They also seem to offer local French phone numbers and French language support which suggests they target traders in France that alerted the AMF. Any financial intermediary offering or recommending investments must be on the list of financial institutions authorized to do business in France.

The AMF recommends binary options customers to only open accounts with financial institutions authorized to do business in France as those are required to comply with the basic rules of providing investor protection, credible information and claims processing. The AMF also routinely warns market participants that any unauthorized intermediaries run the risk of criminal sanctions and advises against responding to offers from any broker on its published blacklists.