The corporate regulator has proposed stamping out the controversial multi-billion-dollar binary options industry, flagging that it will ban all Australian-based brokers from having Australian clients.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) released a consultation paper today stating it is also considering heavy restrictions on the offering of related 'contracts for difference' (CFD) investments — such as foreign exchange trading — to Australians.
Both form part of a complex and confusing world of online trading, where Australians are thought to be losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
The ABC revealed earlier this year that clients of a number of foreign exchange (forex) brokers claimed they were harassed and pressured by ASIC-regulated brokers into losing large sums of money.
Both types of investment are considered by experts and regulators to be no better than gambling, with the vast majority of people who invest losing money.
According to ASIC, Australian clients last year lost $490 million on binary options trading alone.
"Our proposed product intervention will effectively mean that binary options will no longer be lawfully available for acquisition by retail clients in Australia," ASIC said in the consultation paper.
"We expect that this strong measure will reduce harms suffered by retail clients resulting from binary options."
The proposed changes would also dramatically decrease the amount of 'leverage' available to people who trade CFDs such as forex.
At the moment, investors can trade as if they had 500 times as much money as they actually deposited, making them potentially liable for losses exponentially higher than their investment.
However, the proposed crackdown risks pushing Australian clients into poorly regulated jurisdictions in other parts of the world.
A number of Australian brokers had already begun setting up companies in places such as the British Virgin Islands and the Seychelles in anticipation of ASIC's action.
ASIC Commissioner Cathie Armour said the regulator was not proposing banning CFDs outright, at least partly because it wanted to avoid driving Australian clients offshore.
"Unlike binary options, CFDs can serve legitimate trading, investment and hedging purposes. However we consider consumer protections are necessary," she said.
"We were conscious to balance this with the risks of leverage and that Australian clients may seek higher leverage offshore."
The potential regulatory crackdown will also not affect the large client base Australian brokers have in Asia, where investors are not protected by ASIC.
Scrutiny builds around forex trading
Investigators from ASIC and the Australian Federal Police raided the Melbourne offices of one broker, ForexCT, seizing documents and freezing the company's bank accounts. They also stopped the company's director from leaving the country.
Another broker featured by the ABC, Berndale Capital Securities, was stripped of its financial services licence and its director, Stavro D'Amore — who boasted of playing poker with underworld figure Mick Gatto — was banned from offering financial advice.
ASIC successfully sought to freeze Berndale's bank accounts as it investigated what happened to client money and is seeking to have the broker and a number of other companies linked to Mr D'Amore wound up.
Experts say that forex trading is so risky that investments are no safer than simple wagers. Regulatory agencies in Europe and the United States have already drastically curtailed the availability of forex and other types of CFD trading to ordinary investors.
The crackdown by regulators in other countries led to a flood of brokers relocating to Australia, where an ASIC license — with its implication of strong consumer protection — has been regarded as particularly valuable by brokers.
Many of the dozens of forex brokers licensed and regulated by ASIC have large numbers of clients in China.
Industry sources have told the ABC that there could be hundreds of millions of Chinese clients' money held by the Australian brokers.
Earlier this year, ASIC wrote to all brokers and warned them they were breaching Chinese laws by having clients in that country, ordering them to turn over large amounts of financial information to the regulator for inspection.
However, it is believed that some brokers sought legal advice and were told by lawyers that they were not breaching Chinese laws, resulting in a stand-off with ASIC.
ASIC has told brokers that they have a three-week period in which to consider the proposed ban on binary options and restrictions on CFDs.
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-22/ ... y/11437550
