Belgium

Belgium took the hardest line in Europe and has not softened it. Rather than capping leverage, the Financial Services and Markets Authority prohibited the distribution of the products to retail clients altogether.

What the ban covers

A regulation that took effect in August 2016 bans the commercialisation to Belgian retail clients of over-the-counter derivatives whose value depends on currencies, indices or commodities where the contract is settled in cash and carries leverage — CFDs, rolling spot forex and binary options among them. It also bans certain aggressive distribution techniques regardless of product.

This preceded ESMA's intervention by two years and goes considerably further. Where the rest of the EU decided these instruments could be sold under constraints, Belgium decided they could not be sold to consumers at all. The FSMA's stated reasoning was straightforward: its supervision showed the overwhelming majority of retail clients losing money, and it judged that no set of conditions would change that.

What this means in practice

• A broker cannot lawfully market or offer these products to a Belgian retail client, and an EEA firm passporting in is subject to the same prohibition.
• Belgian residents encountering advertising for leveraged forex accounts are, by definition, looking at an operator ignoring the rules. The FSMA maintains a public warning list naming such firms, and it is long.
• Regulated instruments — shares, funds, ETFs, bonds, listed derivatives through an authorised intermediary — remain fully available. The restriction is specific to leveraged OTC contracts sold to consumers.

The professional route

The prohibition applies to retail clients. A client who meets the MiFID II criteria for professional classification falls outside it, but that classification requires genuinely meeting the thresholds — portfolio size, trading frequency, relevant professional experience — and it forfeits the retail protections that exist precisely for the situations where they are needed.

The wider point

Belgium is the natural experiment other European regulators cite. It is the one EU market where the question "what happens if you simply stop selling these to consumers" has an answer, and its continued existence nearly a decade on is why proposals to relax the European caps have not gone far.

Checks

Consult the FSMA's warning list before responding to any offer, and treat unsolicited contact about currency trading as fraud until proven otherwise.