Exclusive: French Watchdog Begins Enforcing Digital Advertising Ban

The French financial regulator, Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), has begun enforcing its recently issued ban on the electronic advertisement of Forex and binary options offerings in France, Finance Magnates has learned.

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Over the past week, the AMF reached out to multiple brokers and affiliates requesting the removal of ads in accordance with the Financial and Monetary Code. A spokesperson from the AMF has confirmed the initiation of enforcement efforts.

CFDs in, forex and binary options out

After months of deliberation on the subject of an advertising ban for certain products, last month the watchdog came up with the final rules for brokers - all electronic advertising of forex and binary options in France will be banned. Companies will still be able to offer CFDs (contracts for difference), provided that they meet certain requirements.

In addition, the AMF requires that all brokers operating in the country provide a guaranteed stop loss on client positions and Negative Balance protection. Before opening a position, clients will have to introduce their stop loss. After the order is executed, clients will not be able to change the stop loss to a wider level. Therefore clients will only be able to lose less than originally anticipated on every position.

The decision is a follow up to the adoption of the Sapin 2 law at the end of last year. After a period of consultation with industry participants and clients of retail brokers, the general rulebook of the AMF has been updated. Finance Magnates can also confirm that as long as CFDs trading accounts are compliant with the AMF’s new requirements, no leverage restrictions apply.