Canada blacklists 37 binary options brokers

The Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA), an organization which represents the securities regulators of 10 Canadian provinces and 3 territories, has published a “Black List” of unauthorized binary options brokers.

The common feature of all companies that participate in the list is that they try to attract investors in Canada without having the proper licenses to do so.

Publishing a list of companies without the necessary licenses is a normal action undertaken by local securities regulators in Canada. However, more comprehensive measures, especially ones taken at a national level are rare in the Northern American country. Usually we see the Ontario’s securities watchdog, or that of British Columbia, issue warnings against companies that offer their services in the respective province without a license, but regulation remains rather fragmented. That is why the “Black List” by the CSA can be seen as somewhat of a milestone.

The list, which you can view below, features 37 companies. The CSA warns that this register is not exhaustive and advises investors to check a dedicated website: aretheyregistered.ca.

The announcement by the CSA mentions the risks related to trading binary options and explicitly states that:

Many binary trading platforms are based overseas, despite listing a Canadian phone number or address. This means that investing with these platforms will move an investor’s money out of Canada and make it nearly impossible to recover if something goes wrong. The companies operating these platforms may not be registered to conduct business in Canada.

It is useful to bear in mind that binary options are regulated as financial trading instruments in Canada and therefore require binary options brokers to obtain licenses as investment services providers in all Canadian provinces where they wish to market these services.

The official message by the CSA can be found here.