Following a warning earlier this year, that it was planning to limit the Turbos negotiation, as retail losses on the product had exceeded 3.4 billion euros, the German financial regulatory authority BAFIN announced that it has actually issued a registration.
Bafin’s new Turbo rules will come into force in June 2026.
The measures are intended to boost investor protection in marketing these extremely profitable products with leverage. To this end, Bafin aims to ensure that the specific risks of these products become transparent to retail investors.
What is turbos
Turbos – also known as Speeders or Sprinters – are structured structured products, most popular with retail traders in some EU areas (mainly in the Netherlands and Germany). The Turbos are exchanged negotiated by leverage leverage that provide indirect (long or short) exploitation of the exposure to an underlying asset (such as the Company’s shares or shares), with the potential loss being limited to the amount paid to them.
Bafin’s counterpart in the Netherlands, the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (AFM), gave similar restrictions on Turbos in 2021.
New Turbo rules
The BAFIN product intervention measure limits the marketing, distribution and sale of turbo certificates to retail investors inhabited in Germany. Some of Bafin’s basic new rules include:
- Promotion. Publishers, providers and intermediaries must now display a standard risk warning.
- Overview. Intermediaries must conduct research before the purchase that evaluates investors’ knowledge of how turbo certificates work (“Basic Turbo”) and must repeat this survey at least every six months
- Bonusless. They cannot be granted in relation to money or non -financial benefits, such as reduced order fees or new customer bonuses in relation to the purchase of these products.
Dr. Thorsten Pötzsch, Executive Officer of Supervisory Capital Market and Asset Management in Bafin stated,
“With this measure, we ensure that retail investors are aware of the specific risks of Turbo certificates before they invest. Turbo certificates can cause significant losses – making it more important to create transparency and increase investor awareness.”
Minor adjustments after consultation
BAFIN carried out a public hearing on the intervention measure (“General Administrative Class”) on May 21, 2025, until the deadline of 3 July 2025, 26 statements by citizens, associations and institutions. After the evaluation of the statements, the implementation period was expanded by the original three to eight months. The product intervention measure will enter into force on 16 June 2026.
“With the extensive deadline for application, we take into account the high technical and administrative effort required by the institutions,” Pötzsch explains. “During the hearing, the institutions said they needed more time, especially for the application of the risk warning and the question of key Turbo knowledge to existing negotiation systems.”
Significant concerns for investor protection
Based on a comprehensive market survey on Turbo certificates, BAFIN raised significant concerns about investor protection: a large proportion of retail investors (74.2 %) suffered losses negotiating in turbo certificates in a five -year study period. On average, they lost € 6,358 each. Their total losses during the study period amounted to over € 3.4 billion. In terms of investor protection, BAFIN mainly criticized the high complexity of turbo certificates and marketing practices and distribution of these products.
Bafin may limit or ban marketing, distributing and selling financial instruments if there are significant concerns about investor protection. This is governed by Article 42 of the European Markets in the Rules of Financial (MIFIR) and Article 15 (1), proposal 2 of the Wertpapierhandelsgesetz law in conjunction with Article 42 of the Mifir.
On his website, Bafin informs consumers what to take into account when buying Turbo certificates.
BAFIN’s full announcement about Turbos can see here.