Another month which starts with some regulatory warnings against risky endeavours, such as trading binary options. According to a press release issued by the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), trading with "all-or-nothing" contracts entails significant risks to the public and investors should be aware that they can lose the entire amount invested and the likelihood of losing their funds is greater than gaining the extraordinary returns promised.
Nothing new under the sky, but for some reason Belgian authorities have awoken to the fact that some members of the public might have been deceived by the hefty returns promised in many advertising campaigns for binary options.
The regulator adds that certain providers of the service are not authorized to deliver their services in Belgium and do not abide by proper business conduct rules. However, the press release fails to mention which entities it is referring to. Instead offers a link to the search function of the FSMA website.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, one of the regional Canadian securities regulators, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has issued a warning against CySEC regulated Optionrally.com which accruing to the authority has not been registered to conduct business within OCS's jurisdiction. The statement concludes that the company is not permitted to be advising anyone with respect to investing in, or buying and selling securities.
Speaking of Canadian regulatory authorities, there are some recent developments surrounding the efforts which have been ongoing for decades to consolidate the regional authorities into a single regulator. After the government appointed a panel of experts back in 2008 to recommend a new structure, the findings unsurprisingly were that there was a great lack of coordination between the 13 separate jurisdictions.
Last fall Ontario and British Colombia committed to a deal with the federal government to create a cooperative national regulator. In its latest budget, the Ontario government reiterated its support for it, and stated in the document, "It is working actively with British Columbia and the federal government to meet the agreed timelines for this initiative, under which the CCMR would become operational by July 1, 2015."
