Provincial market watchdogs are trying to shut down the mechanisms used to entice investors into binary options trading schemes.
Securities regulators have released numerous warnings over the past year saying that no one is registered to offer binary options in Canada. Yet still schemes promoting the get-rich-quick investments continue to proliferate and cause losses for a growing number of investors, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) shared.
Senior director of investigations at Quebec’s Autorité des Marchés Financiers and chair of the CSA’s enforcement committee, Frédéric Pérodeau, shared that there were 800 complaints last year across Canada.
Frédéric Pérodeau
The crackdown will include trying to persuade social media websites and online advertising vehicles to decline ads and other promotions for binary options trading”, he stated. “A task force set up by CSA is also targeting mobile device companies because investors are downloading apps to participate in binary options trading. We want them to understand there is an issue and we want them to be part of the solution,” said Pérodeau, and added that there are more than 100 apps on offer for binary options trading.