UK listed trading firm Plus500 announced their settlement agreement of EUR550K with the FSMA. What do we know about Plus500 Belgian FSMA settlement? Details below...
25 April, AtoZForex – Plus500, the London Stock Exchange-listed online retail service provider, has reached a settlement for the amount of EUR 550,000 with the Belgian FSMA. The news followed less than one year after the Belgian watchdog imposed a blanket ban on trading of the leveraged highly speculative derivatives.
Plus500 Belgian FSMA settlement
Plus500 Limited announced that it has reached the settlement with the Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) in the context of the public offering of financial products especially CFDs in Belgium. Moreover, the company provides an online retail trading platform to trade CFDs globally.
Plus500 offers more than 2100 different global financial products that comprise a long list. The list includes equities, commodities, indices, options, ETFs, and Forex. Furthermore, the company claims to retain its operating licenses. Additionally, it claims to be regulated in the UK, Cyprus, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The UK-listed online trading company says that the settlement does not amount to an admission of guilt or non-compliance. However, Plus500 believes that it had followed all necessary procedures in order to comply with the legislation. Additionally, the company reached the settlement as they felt that it was appropriate to respect the Belgian FSMA’s authority and to reach a speedy and final clearance of the jurisdiction process. Also, Plus500 informed that they don't have any restrictions from the regulatory entity in any of the Group’s financial markets.
Plus500 official settlement announcement
As we discussed earlier, in August 2016, the Belgium’s FSMA imposed a blanket ban. The ban was on so-called highly risky and complex financial instruments such as Binary Options, CFDs, and Forex. However, the FSMA ban is applicable only to OTC (over-the-counter) instruments. It does not apply to trading on an exchange that is regulated or on a multilateral trading facility.
Plus500 says in its settlement announcement that it does not offer binary options or utilize cold calling techniques. The announcement released by Plus500 Limited also says:
“The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service (RIS), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.
For the purposes of MAR and Article 2 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2016/1055, this announcement is being made on behalf of the Company by Elad Even-Chen, Chief Financial Officer.”
I am attaching below the original announcement for our readers’ perusal about EUR550K Plus500 Belgian FSMA settlement.
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