France’s financial regulator (AMF) added some clarification today to the recently passed Sapin II bill, which restricts the advertising of risky financial products like FX binary options & CFDs to the French public.
According to a study carried out by the AMF, 90 percent of those who participated in these risky investments lost money over a 4-year period:
“Clients of leading services providers authorised by serious regulators reported EUR 175 million in losses compared with EUR 13 million in gains over four years and 90% of them lost money.”
The Sapin II anti-corruption bill - named after French Minister of Finance, Michel Sapin - was passed on November 8, 2016. Under the new provisions, the AMF and the General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control are tasked with enforcing the new advertising ban with regard to three specific types of trading instruments: binary options, contracts for difference (CFDs) and foreign exchange contracts.
The AMF
release states:
“In practice, this affects all stakeholders, such as investment services providers offering these contracts and all participants in the advertising chain (media buyers, ad space buyers, media or ad sales companies, ad broadcasters, etc.). AMF staff will conduct active monitoring to identify banned advertisements while the DGCCRF and the AMF may, in accordance with their respective powers, sanction those involved.”
The AMF also said they plan to work with CySEC in Cyprus to “ develop controls and sanctions against authorized companies in that state” which are in violation of the new regulations.
