Response to ASIC Consultation Paper

.Plus500 Ltd

("Plus500", "the Company" or with its subsidiaries "the Group")

Response to ASIC Consultation Paper on Binary Options and CFDs

Plus500, a leading online service provider for trading Contracts for Difference ("CFDs") internationally, provides an update following today's announcement from the Australian Securities & Investment Commission ("ASIC"), which outlines the release of its Consultation Paper on the regulatory changes ASIC proposes to implement, following a consultation period, with respect to retail clients of the CFD industry.

This consultation is similar in spirit and effect to the regulatory changes implemented by ESMA last year. Plus500 already operates in compliance with most of the restrictions, including:

·      negative balance protection to all customers across all its product offerings in all its markets, which Plus500 has always offered;

·      maintenance margin levels, which provide additional protection for its customers;

·      prominent risk disclosures being provided through all the Company's marketing campaigns, trading platforms and websites;

·      real-time disclosure of total position size and overnight funding costs always being provided transparently to clients via the trading platforms and website;

·      always providing its clients with information on pricing and execution; and

·      never having offered binary options

As detailed in the Company's interim results for 2019, Plus500 anticipated that ASIC would wish to consider developing a set of proposals for the future of the industry. Plus500 will consider the full details of these proposals and respond constructively to the Consultation Paper by the deadline of 1 October 2019. The Board will assess the potential impact on revenues generated by Australian customers; this accounted for approximately 15% of the Group's revenues in H1 2019. Inevitably, the transition period after any new regulations is challenging, but as seen in Europe, client trading patterns rapidly adjust and stabilise - this is what Plus500 would also expect to see in Australia.

Asaf Elimelech, Chief Executive Officer of Plus500, commented:

"Plus500 welcomes robust and consistent regulation, which provides a level playing field for all operators to compete on the strength of their customer offering and service levels. The Company looks forward to the outcome of this consultation and the regulatory certainty this will bring to an important market.

"Enhancements to the CFD trading landscape will provide important additional protections for consumers and will be to the long-term benefit of large compliant providers, like Plus500, who work constructively with regulators to build a sustainable industry"

For further details:

About Plus500

Plus500 operates an online trading platform for individual customers to trade CFDs internationally. The Group offers more than 2,400 different underlying global financial instruments, comprising equities, indices, commodities, options, ETFs, foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies. Individual customers of Plus500 can trade CFDs in more than 50 countries and in 32 languages. The trading platform is accessible from multiple operating systems (Windows, smartphones (iOS, Android and Windows Phone), tablets (iOS, Android and Surface) and web browsers). Plus500 retains operating licences and is regulated in the United Kingdom, Australia, Cyprus, Israel, New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore. Customer care is integral to Plus500: customers cannot be subject to negative balances and there are no commissions on trades. Plus500 does not utilise cold calling techniques and does not offer binary options. A free demo account is available on an unlimited basis for platform users, and sophisticated risk management tools are provided free of charge to manage your leveraged exposure, and stop losses to help customers protect profits and limit capital losses. Plus500 is listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange, under the symbol PLUS. www.plus500.com