Market announcement

Title

Admiral Markets AS to challenge the decision of Eesti Finantsinspektsioon (FSA)

Message

On February 8, 2021, Finantsinspektsioon (FSA) forwarded a decision to Admiral
Markets AS notifying the company about an imposed fine of 32 000 EUR. According
to the regulator Admiral Markets AS had not acted entirely in accordance with
the Securities Market Act, following the crash of Future crude oil prices in
April 2020. Admiral Markets AS has decided to file an appeal to the court and
challenge the decision. In their opinion explanations provided by the regulator
may not have been fully understood. It could be that the complexity of the
matter has not been considered in its entirety and the unprecedented market-
specific circumstances have been overlooked while making the decision.

Admiral Markets AS confirms that it has always acted in the best interests of
its clients and is confident that regardless of the opinions in the FSA
announcement, it operated in accordance with the regulatory framework even when
faced with unusual circumstances.

In April 2020, for the first time, a unique event took place affecting the
global financial markets. As a result of this, for the first time in history,
the Future crude oil price at  global financial markets had a negative price and
all market participants had to act instantly about this never-before-seen market
phenomenon.

Admiral Markets AS confirms that the company acted in the best interests of its
customers and ensured that they could continue to trade in global financial
markets despite the unprecedented circumstances in the overall trading
environment. "Risk assessment is a core part of our industry. This is a proof of
our utmost commitment to our clients that we took the hard path while others
might have taken the easy way out and simply closed trading," noted the CEO of
Admiral Markets AS, Sergei Bogatenkov.

In other words, the liquidity partner of the company took unprecedented steps to
prevent negative prices to trading platforms, as online systems would not be
able to technologically cope with such a situation. There is no precedent for
this. Admiral Markets AS had to act operatively to protect the interests of all
their customers around the world and ensure that they could continue to transact
in global markets.  The company put the interests of their clients above its own
while limiting their possible risks related to the resulting situation which the
markets had never experienced before. Admiral Markets AS stood up and did all
within its power to reduce the potential impact on its customers.

According to Admiral Markets AS, the FSA has not taken into consideration all
market-specific circumstances when taking their decision. Other regulators in
Europe have conducted supervision of the members of the Admiral Markets group
companies and in no other entity were their actions considered to be non-
compliant with relevant regulation or that their notifications were not
sufficient. This is an eloquent argument and the company hopes to address this
also before the court. Admiral Markets AS has always been committed to ensuring
that the interests of our customers around the world are protected.

Admiral Markets AS informed its customers as early as 2020.04.03 of possible
anomalies in the financial markets and asked them to be vigilant in such
unprecedented circumstances. Even more, they informed their clients 7 times over
the next 20 days about relevant changes as well as decisions taken that would
affect their trading conditions with Admiral Markets. In the company's opinion
it is a very clear risk mitigation.

The company has carefully read the decision of the FSA and upon assessment the
decision is based on conclusions that do not correspond to market practice
neither does it seem that the methodology or explanations provided to the
regulator have been considered prior to the issuing of the regulators' decision.
In the opinion of Admiral Markets AS, not all market-specific circumstances have
been taken into account while making the decision nor have the numerous
notifications been considered sent to the company's clients throughout the
turbulent time. The risk management processes are of utmost importance to
Admiral Markets AS and the company constantly updates them. Large investments to
mitigate risks and ensure quality client-centric service are regularly made. The
company feels that it has helped customers to reduce potential impact in such
unique circumstances and acted in the best interests of them. That's why it has
decided to file an appeal to the court to challenge the FSA's decision.

Additional information:

Kaia Gil Communication manager of Admiral Markets AS
[email protected]
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