The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) will now only allow brokers they regulate to operate in the country. Being an EU member state, Forex brokers regulated by another EU country were allowed to operate in Poland, without having to acquire a license from the local regulator, in this case the KNF. However, the KNF now demands that any broker interested in the Polish market will have to be regulated by them. Otherwise, the broker may only act as an agent of a KNF-regulated investment firm.
These new regulations will also cover marketing of online Forex and CFD trading. Therefore, only KNF-regulated investment firms will be able to market their products to Polish residents. There is a slight exception, though, which would allow unregulated companies to advertise to Poles. An unregulated investment firm may advertise to a broad group of prospective clients. This exception has been left on an undefined basis, meaning that the ‘broad group’ may be left up to interpretation. The KNF is probably trying to reduce cases of targeted marketing, believing that a group may be less susceptible to false advertising.