The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is once again extending its ban on the sale of binary options to retail investors, pushing the prohibition into next summer, regulators announced Tuesday.
ESMA has agreed to renew its prohibition on the marketing and distribution of binary options to retail clients for another three months. This latest extension will kick in on April 2.
ESMA, which issued its first temporary ban in July 2018 and has repeatedly renewed it. ESMA has “carefully considered” whether it is necessary to continue with its intervention, it says in a release, concluding that “a significant investor protection concern related to the offer of binary options to retail clients continues to exist.”
In 2017, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) implemented its own permanent ban on the sale of binary options to retail clients in Canada, in an effort to combat fraud by unregistered, offshore firms. The ban followed the creation of a CSA task force on binary options back in 2016, amid growing concern about these sorts of schemes.