Admiral Markets responds to €32K fine around negative oil prices
Global Retail FX and CFDs broker Admiral Markets has issued a statement with regards to the relatively light €32,000 fine it was issued recently by Estonian financial regulator Finantsinspektsioon.
Tallinn, Estonia based Admiral Markets AS said that it has received a notification by Finantsinspektsioon on 08.02.2021, imposing a fine of 32,000 euros deriving from obligations of the Securities Market Act. Admiral Markets AS said it is in constant cooperation with Finantsinspektsioon and has always acted in the best interests of the client.
In April 2020, for the first time, an event took place in the global financial markets, as a result of which the international financial platforms were not ready to reflect negative prices and calculate credit limits. Sergei Bogatenkov, CEO of Admiral Markets AS, confirmed that the company acted in the best interests of its customers and ensured that customers could continue to trade in global financial markets.
“We have always been committed to ensuring that the interests of our customers around the world are protected. In this situation, we stood up to reduce the potential impact on our customers. The goal of Admiral Markets is always to be a quality leader, to offer the best service and open communication with its customers and cooperation partners,” Bogatenkov noted. “We informed our customers early on of possible anomalies in the financial markets and asked them to be vigilant.”
According to Admiral Markets AS, not all market-specific circumstances have been taken into account in making the decision, therefore the company will decide on contesting it in the near future.
As a reminder, in April 2020 in the midst of general financial markets pandemonium in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, crude oil prices turned negative for the first time in history, as demand for crude dropped and short term storage for crude filled up. The turn negative by crude presented a problem for a number of trading platforms, which simply weren’t built for negative prices. Since that event, a number of trading platforms (such as MetaQuotes’ MT5) have made changes taking account of the possibility of negative prices.