Monday, December 23, 2024

UK FCA Permanently Bans Binary Options

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The Finacial Times reported today, that UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will permanently ban trading the sale, marketing, and distribution of binary options. The regulator said that the ban could save consumers up to £17m a year and cut the risk of scams.

It’s Gaming, Stupid

The FCA’s move goes further than that of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) as it is also banning so-called securitized binary options, which were excluded from the European ban. FCA’s ban would prevent a market in that product developing, the FCA said.

Binary options are gambling products dressed up as financial instruments. By confirming our ban today we are ensuring that investors don’t lose money from an inherently flawed product.

Christopher Woolard, FCA executive director of strategy and competition

Binary options are not only gambling but beyond that also prone to fraud. Most providers of binary options are not registered with financial authorities and mostly work with manipulated software. This actually reduces the client’s chances of winning to zero. In addition, these illegal brokers do not keep their clients’ funds in separate containers, but use them for operational purposes and financing the luxurious lives of their operators.

Report Illegal Brokers

Illegally operating broker schemes and their boiler rooms are part of fast-growing global cybercrime activities. Millions of investors are defrauded by those broker sites losing billions of euros every year. Hence, it is important to warn investors of such illicit sites. If you are a victim of an illegally operating broker site such as Tradeinvest90, Option888, XMarkets, XTraderFX, GToptions, StoxMarket, Bluetrading, FXTrade777, or KayaFX please file your claim and report activities via our whistleblower system: