The Israeli government is planning a law to shut down the country’s entire binary options sector.

Binary options firms, which offer customers short-term bets on the movements of financial assets, have been widely accused of being little more than fronts for multi-million-pound scams.

The proposed amendment to Israel’s securities law will also prohibit any type of trading forum - even if they do not offer binary options – from selling to overseas customers without receiving a licence from the country where the clients reside.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Finance Ministry said: “Over the past year, law enforcement agents, including the Securities Authority, have received numerous and serious complaints regarding financial losses of clients in countries around the world as a result of trading on Israeli forums operating without supervision and licenses.”