German financial services watchdog cracks down on spread betting

The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s crackdown on financial and stocks spread betting via contracts for difference (see previous  report) has been followed by similar moves in Germany, where the financial regulator BaFin announced similar new restrictions Thursday.

The BaFin, or Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht), is an independent federal institution under the supervision of the German Federal Ministry of Finance which supervises more than 4,000 financial institutions such as banks and insurers as well as thousands of investment funds.

Chief Executive Director Elisabeth Roegele told media reporters that BaFin intends to ban the sale of one of the most popular financial betting products – known as a contract for difference (CFD) – to retail customers if the CFDs include a so-called additional payment obligation.

The ban will be implemented this summer in order to protect consumers, she said.

In the meantime, interested parties have until January 20 2017 to submit suggestions and perspectives on the proposed ban.

Our  readers will recall that earlier this week a clampdown in the UK sent shares of major providers in the spread betting sector into an almost 40 percent (in some cases) nose-dive.

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