The rules guarantee the safety of those involved, and help to mitigate broader market failures in the most competitive industries. On the part of the consumer, they shield them from abuse, scams, and fraudulent activity. Despite the importance of regulation, it has not always existed.

Options trading in a broad sense has been around since , when the Chicago Board of Trade formed the Chicago Board Options Exchange. In the earliest days, it was an investment vehicle utilised by only the most elite investors, and was thus minimally regulated.

As the decades passed, this began to change. Regulation improved, and the quality of options transactions increased. A body known as the Options Clearing Corporation OCC was formed, and this helped to ensure that the assets that investors bought and sold were as claimed.

In cases of serious malpractice, this organisation even had the power to implement bans. In time, binary options became more user-friendly, yet they remained the product of an exclusive market, where transactions were still conducted over-the-counter.

Regulation did exist by this point, but was minimal. At this time, the OCC made the decision to enable binary options to trade on the major stock exchanges.

This was legalised by the U. Securities and Exchange Commission in As a result, the number of binary options brokers boomed, and an increased number of investors began to trade them. One of the most interesting things is that companies with headquarters in South Africa are not allowed to provide binary trading service to users in South Africa. Binary options in South Africa are regulated by the FSB or Financial Services Board, special regulatory agency that controls all elements and participants in financial markets.

The main role of the Financial Services Board is to maintain safe and reliable investing environment in whole South Africa. Mostly forex brokers are regulated in South Africa — most popular is CMTrading.

FSB also provides support for traders who have been scammed by bad binary brokers. They can use one of the numerous contacts available for FSB customer support and even reach for their Consumer Education department that will provide traders with more detailed information about the topic they are interested in.

Find out more about binary options in South Africa. In the past, there were two regulatory bodies that monitored binary options trading in this country: Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada IIROC that is enforcing the proficiency, business and financial conduct of dealer firms and Canada Securities Administrators agency CSA which is an umbrella organization for harmonizing and improvement of the Canadian market.

It is important to make clear that binary options are not illegal but are defined as exotic options. Yet, it still seems that Canada is not popular among brokers. The reason for that is probably that it consists of ten provinces and three territories and each of them has their own legislation which makes it harder for brokers to offer their services on the entire Canadian market. For that reason, Canadians mostly trade with regulated offshore brokers or unregulated brokers with a good reputation, even though Canadian authorities usually warn about unregulated brokers, but only because they are not regulated by them.

We can hope that in near future Canada will make some improvements when it comes to regulation. All Canadian citizens can complain about regulated brokers in Canada in case there are any to IIROC and CSA , and they should contact the offices depending on their residence province. The British Virgin Islands is a British overseas territory mostly known for as offshore financial center. BVI is quite popular among financial companies as their banking laws are quite loose. Binary options are, just as is Forex, regulated by Financial Services Commission FSC.

FSC is more popular among forex brokers than binary options brokers, even though there are some brokers who have addresses in BVI but are regulated by other regulatory bodies, like ImperialOptions regulated by CySEC. In Australia, binary options are considered financial product and according to the Commission, any entity that deals in, or provides advice about binary options to Australian investors must be licensed by Australian Finance Services AFS , which is a part of ASIC.

Even though Australian customers may trade with European brokers those regulated by CySEC , it is always better to use Australian broker if one is an Australian resident.

Strict laws that are enforced on brokers registered in Australia are insurance for traders who want to invest safe and easy way. ASIC can retrieve their permission for binary options trading if they notice that a broker is a scam. In order to file a complaint about one of the brokers, ASIC requests traders to know the difference between various types of scams as they are not authorized to deal with all of them. Find more information about various scam types and how to report them here.

When it comes to binary options trading, France is an interesting market. There are two regulating bodies: Autorité des Marchés Financiers AMF or Financial Markets Authority that regulates the stock market in France and Banque de France that oversights financial markets infrastructures, cashless means of payment and ensures security in a world of finances.

Binary options in this country are defined as financial services. Despite two regulating bodies, binary options trading is not completely regulated, but it is not illegal either. Brokers can register in France but, any brokers registered with other regulatory bodies inside EU are considered registered brokers in France as well.

That is why it is always recommended that French traders trade only with registered European brokers. But that is not the real reason we could say AMF is hostile: high taxes and fees are quite undesirable in the world of financial trading, so brokers prefer countries as Cyprus or Latvia.

Other than that, French authorities established Jury of Advertising Ethics of the Authority of Professional Publicity Regulation ARPP that is an interprofessional body created in order to provide an ethical and professional environment in advertising, thanks to which broker can no longer use false advertising. The most popular broker registered in France is Banc de Binary. In order to report scams and unethical business practices, simply fill the form available on the AMF website.

Our analysis of one of AMF studies can be found in the article about binary options scams. CONSOB is a regulatory body in Italy that reassures transparency and appropriate behavior by financial market participants, disclosures and of complete and accurate information to the investing public by listed companies, and that considers binary option betting.

As they explained, binary options have a structure similar to betting, since they assure payment of the pre-set amount before the event occurs. For example, in the European Union is quite common that every broker that has a license within the European Union is allowed to do business in any country within EU, but not in Italy. All licenses issued by other regulatory bodies, like CySEC or AMF, must be reviewed and approved by CONSOB in order to do business in Italy. As it was stated in Communication No.

Since the Italian authorities view binary options as gambling industry and have very strict policies when it comes to this industry, CONSOB even blocked websites belonging to brokers who were accepting Italian customers like EZTrader, BOcapital, StartOptions, AnyOption etc. As FBO reported, EZTrader turned out to be a scam and, in this case, Italian government did well by prosecuting them. Unfortunately, Italy tends to block even the fair and honest brokers which is not good for their business, but also removes the block as soon as the broker gets the license.

The first broker that got the license was 24option. This regulatory CONSOB accepts reports only by filling the form available on their website. New Zealand is one of the few countries that regulates the binary options trading industry.

Financial Markets Authority is a financial services regulator in New Zealand. Many platform providers are based in New Zealand, and their Financial Markets Authority is conducting Financial Markets Conduct Act. All brokers first must register at Financial Service Provider Register in order to do business in New Zealand. They also have to be members of an external Dispute Resolution Scheme, which gives traders additional protection.

BinaryTilt is a broker licensed in New Zealand. New Zealand customers cannot trade with FMA regulated brokers. One of the cases like that was that of broker under the name of OptionsRider. FMA stated that the broker claimed to be registered with a nonexistent regulatory body in New Zealand. Such behavior is considered deceiving and is punishable by law.

What is even more surprising is that the broker completely ignored the fact that everyone can easily check if a company is registered or not with Financial Service Provider Register simply by typing the unique code assigned to each company. After short research we found out that there is a big chance this broker is a scam since users described their customer service as almost not existing, there are no owners mentioned on the website and the list of dishonest practice goes on and on.

This only proves how important it is to check all the details provided by the broker before making a deposit. FMA is always trying to protect public from scam so there is an online form on their website that should be filled in case one suspects there is fraudulent activity going on. Make sure to upload all evidence available as it makes your complaint look more serious.

Binary options industry in the United Kingdom has been experiencing some changes recently. Since , it has been considered betting and was a category under Gambling Act. There were a public hearing and a thorough research under the supervision of a judge in order to decide whether binary options should stay in the domain of gambling, or be transferred into the sector of financial markets. At the moment, brokers still get their licenses issued by Financial Conduct Authority, but the final decision can be expected in early Since the European Union is treated as one market, brokers regulated with other European regulatory bodies can offer their services in the UK as well, but keep in mind that it might change in if UK government decides to follow the example set by Italy.

It is expected that in the future FCA will be the one providing licenses for the brokers, and Financial Policy Committee will supervise if all the brokers follow the necessary legislation. FCA issued licenses for several brokers:.

It is important to emphasize that at the moment, FCA is not the official regulatory body, as the entire industry in the UK is in a transitional period. For that reason, traders cannot expect protection as in other cases with regulated brokers. FCA currently has no authority over prosecuting or penalizing foul brokers. As already mentioned, this problem will probably be solved in Here you will find detailed steps what to do in case of a scam , the first step being stop sending money.

This regulatory body even gives useful advice on how to avoid being scammed, and what to do once the scam is reported. One of the most popular countries among binary options brokers is Belize. Binary Options in Belize are regulated by International Financial Services Commission and are defined as trading in securities services.

There are two exceptions to this rule: bank licensed under the Banks and Financial Institutions Act CAP. In case of any difficulties, traders can always contact IFSC using the online form that can be found here. All regulated broker can be found on their web page, on the List F. As many other regulatory bodies, IFSC also releases information on brokers who lost their license, so be sure to follow their web page in case you trade with broker registered there.

Recently, Vanuatu Financial Services Commission has become increasingly popular among binary options brokers. Vanuatu is a small island state formerly known as New Hebrides Islands that provides numerous benefits for financial business, but low tax rates as well. When registering with VFSC, the company is not obligated to have physical offices in the state or local staff. There is a contact form available on the website, but it is important to mention that this regulatory body seems more business-oriented than dedicated to protecting the traders.

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Binary Options Regulation in Russia Binary options trading is very popular in Russia, and there are many brokers present on the Russian market. Security 8. Vanuatu is a small island state formerly known as New Hebrides Islands that provides numerous benefits for financial business, but low tax rates as well. So, why bother with it at all? Binary Options Regulation the UK Binary options industry in the United Kingdom has been experiencing some changes recently. In their publication, ISA mentioned how binary options should be defined as gambling and not as an investment which can make traders wonder how come there are so many successful strategies available in order to research the market and make a proper decision. More active approach is proved to be better than a passive one, as binary trading is safer thanks to the new rules implemented by CySEC.

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