Reuters: The European Union’s securities watchdog has renewed a ban on the sale of ‘binary’ options to retail customers for a further three months starting Oct. 2, saying there are still concerns about the risks of the products.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) started the ban on July 2 amid concern about losses made on the options, which give an investor exposure to price movements in securities without actually owning the underlying assets.“ESMA considers that a significant investor protection concern related to the offer of binary options to retail clients continues to exist,” the regulator said in a statement. ESMA said certain longer-dated binary options would be excluded from the renewed ban, as well as those where the investor’s capital is not at risk.
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