Financial, Offer to retail investors of binary options and contracts for difference

Community directive on the provision of investment services (Mifid II) and article 42 of the Mifir regulation (EU regulation on the markets of financial instruments)

BINARY OPTIONS AND CONTRACTS BY DIFFERENCE: CONSOB’S CONSULTATION FOR THE ADOPTION OF PERMANENT BAN AND RESTRICTION MEASURES

Consob initiated a consultation with the financial market on the measures to be taken regarding the offer to retail investors of binary options and contracts for differences.

The objective is to introduce in Italy on a permanent basis – pursuant to the EU directive on the provision of investment services (Mifid II) and article 42 of the Mifir regulation (EU regulation on the markets of financial instruments) – the same measures of intervention already adopted by ESMA, the European authority for financial instruments and markets.

With regard to the offer of binary options, the Esma provisions, approved with the support of Consob, include the ban on marketing, distribution and sale to retail investors; as regards, instead, the offer of contracts for differences, they provide for restrictions on the marketing, distribution and sale to retail investors.

January 14, 2019

Source Consob