Google has updated its Complex speculative financial products policy to allow ads for contracts for difference (CFDs), rolling spot forex and similar products in Denmark and Chile.
The policy decision takes effect this month, but Google did not give an exact date.
London's trading industry is coming home!
What the New Policy Requires
In Denmark, the provider must be authorized by Finanstilsynet, the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, to offer the relevant products in the country. In Chile, the provider must be registered with and authorized by the Financial Market Commission (CMF) or the Central Bank of Chile, depending on the products offered.
In both countries, advertisers must meet all other applicable local legal requirements and hold Google certification. Violations will not lead to immediate account suspension. Google will issue a warning at least seven days before any suspension.
The Danish change follows an earlier restriction. In August 2023, Google updated its Financial products and services policy to prohibit ads for complex speculative financial products in Denmark, including CFDs, financial spread betting and rolling spot forex, with enforcement beginning on August 31, 2023. Google applied the same prohibition to Spain, with enforcement starting on August 3, 2023.
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Google has also revised its rules for another market. From October 21, the search engine giant will apply updated licensing requirements to ads for crypto exchanges, software wallets, CFDs and rolling spot forex targeting users in the United Arab Emirates. For CFD and forex advertising, Google recognizes licences from the Capital Market Authority (CMA), the Dubai Financial Services Authority and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
The new wording substitutes the CMA for the SCA, which the CMA replaced as legal successor in January 2026.
For crypto, the update adds the CMA and DFSA as eligible regulators and no longer limits the FSRA route to multilateral trading facilities. Firms in all four categories need a licence for the service they promote and separate Google certification.
How the Industry Got Here
Google’s restrictions on the category date back to 2018. Finance Magnates reported at the time that Google would ban ads from forex and CFD affiliates and aggregators, and would outright ban binary options providers. Firms offering CFDs, forex and spread betting would need Google certification, and would need to be licensed by the financial authority of each country they targeted. The restrictions were scheduled for June 2018.
Finance Magnates at the time also spoke with industry executives ahead of that rollout. B2Broker CEO Artur Azizov said the industry had worked around advertising bans before, pointing to Russia, where brokers promoted forex training and consulting after Yandex banned forex ads. Tools4Brokers CEO Aleksey Kutsenko noted that Google had not announced a total ban, and that advertisers would need a licence from the local regulator.
Other platforms followed. Facebook banned ads for binary options, cryptocurrencies and ICOs in January 2018, and Twitter (now X) announced a ban on ICO and cryptocurrency ads in March 2018. Facebook later said it would stop accepting CFD ads from June 5, nearly a year after Google moved against the products. Microsoft’s Bing also moved to disallow cryptocurrency advertising on its network in 2018.
