As the binary options industry is sweeping over the world and signing up millions of clients, some regions still remain largely untouched. Norway is one of these few regions, and there are several contributing reasons:
Social attitudes
Binary options trading is viewed as gambling by most people. Indeed in some ways it is, but the general structure is quite different, which is why it is often considered to be a financial instrument. Nevertheless, many countries do not recognize it as such, and it remains either unregulated or licensed by non-financial bodies.
In the UK, for example, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not recognize binary options as a security or financial instrument. Hence, binary options brokers in the UK are governed and licensed by the Gambling Commission. However, the US does recognize binary options as a viable financial instrument, which is why the trade is licensed and overseen by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) also acknowledges binary options, and provides licenses to numerous brokers.
Nevertheless, the activity remains unregulated in most areas of the world where there is no law directly concerning binary options, and these include Norway. The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (Finanstilsynet) does not have any authority over binary options, thus there’s no regulation over it.
Despite this, according to https://www.norskcasino.review/, Norwegians still practice binary options trading through brokers situated in other European countries, but only to a small extent because of the social attitude regarding gambling. Binary options are also called all-or-nothing options, giving them more of a gambling nature than an investment. In Norway, the people do not like gambling and most Norwegians see it as a social ill. This can be demonstrated by the residents’ reluctance to pressure their government to change the existing laws on gambling. Surveys also show that even though gambling still goes on, Norwegians would prefer if the government imposed tougher laws to limit how much it goes on.
All these show that there is an underlying distaste for gambling, and the association of binary options with gambling transfers the same attitude Norwegians have over gambling. In other parts of Europe, binary options trading has grown because of marketing tactics that glorify binary options trading through images of rich young people who claim to have made their money from the trade. In Norway, though, social good rather than personal riches and wealth are glorified, so this same marketing gimmick has not had an impact.
In short, there are different social attitudes in Norway that have worked together to keep binary options unpopular in Norway.
Financial regulation
Norway’s FSA does not recognize or regulate binary options trading. This means that there are no binary options licenced by the financial regulator and all the trading of binary options that still occurs is done through offshore companies. The trading of binary options in Norway is therefore illegal in the eyes of the law.
However, other similar crimes still go on such as the online gambling that is done through offshore gambling companies, because there has never been prosecution for these crimes. In spite of this, the idea that something is illegal is enough to deter most Norwegians from binary options trading. Furthermore, any proceeds from binary options trading are taxable, and at the high rate of 30%, which is more than many other European countries.
These factors on the legal and regulatory side also contribute to the unpopularity of binary options trading in Norway.