The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) issued last week Circular C168 with subject "Updated version of ESMA's Q&A document relating to the provision of CFDs and other speculative products to retail investors under MiFID". With the said Circular, CySEC has interpreted ESMA's Q&A, as this was published earlier in October 2016, in relation to the offering of speculative products to retail clients subject to MiFID.

The five main topics are:

1. Bonus offering to be avoided;
2. Deadline by 14th of December whereby CIFs must notify CySEC if any bonuses are offered to clients;
3. CIFs must notify CySEC in advance in case they wish to promote new trading benefits;
4. Withdrawal of bonus should be made within the same day;
5. Use of leverage.

The Circular is available at the following link:

http://cysec.gov.cy/CMSPages/GetFile.aspx?guid=8a41b640-9022-4986-b6d9-dff92c39888f

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.