By Frank Tolboom, lawyer at Kalff Katz & Franssen, and Joost van den Bogaerd
On 4 April 2016, the Minister of Finance (also on behalf of the State Secretary of Secretary and Justice) published its answers to parliamentary questions on the qualification of binary options as a financial instrument. MPs of the Christian Democratic Party (“CDA”) again questioned whether binary options should not be qualified and regulated as games of chance rather than financial instruments. In its response the Minister referred to its previous answers of 30 October 2015 in which he already held that binary options are qualified as financial instruments in accordance with the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). As such the Netherlands Authority of Financial Markets (“AFM”) is responsible for supervision of binary options, according to the Minister of Finance. … Continue Reading