Forex Regulation in Germany

Forex and CFD trading is legal in Germany, supervised by BaFin, with retail leverage capped at 30:1 on major currency pairs. BaFin acted before the EU: its general administrative act of 8 May 2017 prohibited selling CFDs to retail clients where they could create an additional payment obligation, to be implemented by 10 August 2017. Its current act of 23 July 2019, in force from 1 August 2019, allows retail CFDs only with a minimum margin (from 3.33% of the position on major currency pairs up to 50% on cryptocurrencies), a close-out when account funds plus unrealised profits fall below half the required margin, negative balance protection limiting losses to the CFD account, no trading incentives, and a prescribed risk warning (BaFin, read 16 October 2026). If a securities trading firm fails, the investor compensation scheme Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen (EdW) pays 90% of an investor's claim from securities business, capped at €20,000 per investor (EdW, read 30 September 2026). It compensates for a failed firm, not for trading losses.