AMF bans 24Option from France

Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.

France’s regulator, the AMF, has banned the 24Option binaries broker from operating in France. According to a statement on the watchdog’s website, the company owning the website Rodeler Limited, is not complying with certain professional obligations, henceforth its activities in France are forbidden as of August 1.

This means the broker is not allowed to solicit or take on new clients from France, while relations with the existing clients must be terminated and they must be allowed to close their positios and withdraw their funds.

AMF notes that it is not competent to ensure compliance and proper protection of investors’ interests in France, as Rodeler Limited is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. So, as per Article 62 of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Directive 2004/39/EC) (MiFID) transported into French law, the AMF is permitted to “take all necessary measures to protect investors and maintain the proper functioning of markets, including, where appropriate, ‘prohibiting the service provider concerned to continue to provide services on the territory of France.”

In spite the ban, it appears that on August 1, the French site of 24Option www.24option.com/fr, works normally.

According to the Finance Magnates website, 24Option has sent a notice to its affiliates informing them of the situation: “As you are aware, at 24Option we fully stick to the strict European financial regulation. As such, in order to comply with AMF, we have been asked to block all French traffic to the site at this time. We are working with the regulator to solve this situation as soon as possible.”

The AMF move comes just days after the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) published a report on the risk of of trading in CFDs, binaries and other speculative financial instruments, such as rolling spot forex. Besides, the AMF is one of the European regulators that most actively goes after binary options brokers – both regulated and unregulated and is regularly updating its warning list. Most recently, it issued a report that in 2015 complaints from binary options and forex brokers have soared to unprecedented levels.