As you may already know, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has recently announced new measures for trading of CFD products for retail customers.

These measures include leverage restrictions (detailed below), negative balance protection and Margin Closeout restrictions, all of which are being introduced in order to protect retail clients.

These measures will be effective as of July 29th, 2018.

This is the first of several communications regarding this matter, so please check for additional relevant information and updates, as we get closer to July 29th.

According to the new ESMA intervention measure, leverage rates can only be offered between a margin of 2:1 and 30:1, depending on the specific instrument. Margin Closeout will be limited to 50% on account basis.

As a regulated trading platform, easyMarkets will be fully compliant with the new regulations.

• 30:1 for major currency pairs (such as EUR/USD)
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs (such as NZD/USD), gold and major indices: FTS, CAC, DAX, ESX, SPI, NDQ, NKI, ASX
• 10:1 for commodities with the exception of gold and non-major equity indices
• 2:1 for cryptocurrency CFD

Please note that the above changes will not affect open positions unless the trades are on Metatrader4 Platform, which in that case, might require additional margin to keep the positions open.

The above changes will not apply to Elective Professional Clients however these clients won’t be eligible for certain other regulatory protections.

To apply for Elective Professional Client Status, please contact the support team.