Australian Regulator Expected to Follow ESMA in Restricting CFD Trading

Along with other regional regulators, including CySEC in Europe, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has also indicated that it plans to restrict the offering of CFD contracts to traders as well as ban binary options trading altogether.

While the ban on binary options is nothing new – this type of activity is already banned in major jurisdictions around the world, it will be interesting to see the leverage restrictions that will be set out by ASIC. Will they be in step with ESMA in Europe? This is an important question as it will ultimately have an impact on a possible migration of predominantly Asian traders from the AU jurisdiction, considering their appetite for risk.

Globally, it looks as though the leverage noose is tightening in every major jurisdiction, offering up speculation on what will happen to the commercial viability of brokers in these regions.