In an article on LeapRate, a leading online trading industry publication, our Managing Director was quoted extensively on the subject of increased regulation regarded FX marketing in France.

LeapRate today spoke to FX marketing specialist Bart Burggraaf, Managing Director & Partner at MediaGroup London, to ascertain his perspective on this move by the French authorities: 

“As I understand it the new regulation’s main points are making it mandatory to be transparent about pricing, have risk warnings and mark itself as an advertisement.”

“On the one hand making advertising talk about risk and pricing more clearly makes a lot of theoretical sense from a consumer stand point. However, in an ideal world qualified investors should understand the risks of whatever they are investing in themselves; more disclaimers and warnings is not the answer – with all the small print, disclaimers and legalese I find it hard to believe traders will pay much attention to them” continued Mr. Burggraaf.

“Regardless of your stance of having them in the first place, I think having these warnings and disclaimers in advertisements is the least favourable option; often creative space is too small to do something meaningful and will make advertising less effective. I think it makes much more sense to do these warnings at the point of conversion (i.e. a live account signup) as putting money on the line, in my opinion, is the appropriate point to make all warnings known.”

Certainly, the ARRP’s intention is to place greater caveats in front of potential clients before they act on the advertisements placed on websites. Mr. Burggraaf concluded by explaining to LeapRate that “When it comes to being transparent about pricing; a good broker will do that anyway as it’s in their best interest but I could see how some consumer protection makes sense here. Same with marking advertisements and advertorials as commercial content.

The original can be read here.