Last March, the Israel Securities Authority, headed by Prof. Shmuel Hauser, banned the marketing of binary options to Israelis. Now, Hauser is acting to expand his responsibilities to enable him to ban Israeli companies from marketing binary options abroad.
Hauser has requested Attorney-General Dr. Avichai Mandelblit to consider changing the current law, which authorizes the Israel Securities Authority to carry out oversight and enforcement only towards entities offering binary options to Israelis. The requested change will enable the Authority to also ban the marketing of binary options from Israel abroad.
The Israel Securities Authority says that Hauser is deeply concerned about the binary options trend, and calls it "an ugly phenomenon which harms innocent people and, unfortunately, fuels the negative image of Israelis and Jews." Hauser's opinion on binary options stems from the biblical warning "Beware your destroyers do not devastate you from within." Therefore, all available measures must be pursued to root out this phenomenon.
Moreover, the Israel Securities Authority clarifies that it has assisted securities authorities worldwide with handling binary options offenders, as part of relevant international cooperation agreements.
At present, global estimates are that 90% of binary options firms are Israeli. Many of these companies are registered in tax shelters but operate from Israel. Estimates are that these companies hire thousands of employees from Israel's high tech industry.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 26, 2016
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