On October 31, 2018, the European Securities and Markets Authority Decision renewing and amending the temporary restriction on the marketing, distribution or sale of contracts for differences to retail clients was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. ESMA announced on September 28, 2018 that the existing restriction would be extended and would include an additional reduced character risk warning because CFD providers have experienced technical difficulties in using the risk warnings due to the character limitations imposed by third-party marketing providers. The CFD Decision applies directly across the EU from November 1, 2018 for three months.
ESMA extended the temporary product intervention prohibiting the marketing, distribution and sale of binary options to retail investors for a further three months from October 2, 2018, although certain types of binary options were excluded from the scope of the prohibition because ESMA considers that those binary options are less likely to present a significant investor protection concern. Both of ESMA's product intervention measures are made using powers under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation.
The Decision is available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32018X1031(01)&from=EN and details of the extension of the ban relating to binary options are available at: https://finreg.shearman.com/european-securities-and-markets-authority-intends.
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