Gérard Rameix, head of France’s securities regulator AMF, has addressed the nation’s president François Hollande, voicing his concerns regarding the risks associated with trading online, and Forex trading in particular.
The letter mentions that in the face of the regulatory efforts to curb the investors’ exposure to such high-risk products, the amount of losses from online trading topped EUR 4 billion over the past 6 years. As a result, the AMF pushes for the adoption of the Sapin 2 law (currently a bill), which is targeted against corruption and financial fraud. Sapin 2 aims to ban advertising of investment products associated with high risks of losses, like Forex.
Last year, France’s online advertising of investment products was dominated by Forex and binary options ads, which accounted for 35% of the total online investment ads.
AMF published its annual report for 2015 today, showing that the number of complaints received against binary options and Forex brokers reached 1,617 in 2015, up from 1,293 in 2014.
The information service of the regulator responded to 14,424 requests for information, with the vast majority of these concerning FX and binary options brokers. Some investors complained about not being able to get their funds back, whereas others were merely interested into whether a given company is properly regulated in France.
Number of complaints received by AMF regarding FX and binary options firms.
You can view the full letter from AMF to France’s president by clicking here.
For the full AMF 2015 annual report, click here.