Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) imposed a fine of 20 million zlotys on XTB. The decision was issued on March 30, 2026, and made public on April 13. The regulator accuses the company of failing to adequately assess between 2022 and 2023 whether clients truly understood the risks of investment services and financial instruments, incorrectly defining target product groups, insufficiently describing potential conflicts of interest related to the publication of the HOT list, and providing clients and potential clients with incomplete or misleading information about instruments and risks associated with contracts for difference, namely CFDs.
Article Contents – XTB Faces Problems:
- New Fine from Polish Regulator
- XTB Faces Problems – Not the First Sanction in Poland
- France: Fine for Advertising, Client Questionnaires, and Technical Incident
- XTB Faces Problems – Action Taken Outside Europe Too
- Polish Consumer Protection Authority Also Addressed the Issue
- Further Inspections Continuing in Several Countries
- XTB Faces Problems – Company Continues to Handle Client Lawsuits
New Fine from Polish Regulator
The KNF stated in its justification that the MiFID questionnaire methodology used did not allow reliable assessment of whether a client possessed sufficient knowledge and experience to trade in riskier and more complex products. According to the regulator, it was possible that even people without actual CFD experience were informed that these instruments were adequate for them.
Another criticism targeted the way target groups were set. XTB formally distinguished multiple investor categories, but in practice applied the same criteria to them without adequately considering the complexity of individual products and associated risks.
Polish supervision also highlighted a potential conflict of interest in the HOT list, namely instruments specially emphasized to clients. According to the KNF, the company’s internal policy did not allow investors to sufficiently understand how the algorithm for selecting these instruments worked and whether products with higher spreads—and thus potentially higher returns for the company itself—were favored. The regulator also criticized XTB for insufficiently detailed information about all risks associated with CFDs, which according to it could have limited clients’ ability to make informed investment decisions.
The company itself, according to a statement sent to the PAP agency, is analyzing the decision and considering further legal steps. It also stated that the dispute primarily concerns the process of determining target groups and onboarding new clients, including the registration form used from January 2022 to September 2023.
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XTB Faces Problems – Not the First Sanction in Poland
The current fine is not the first significant sanction that XTB has received in Poland. As early as September 2018, the company announced in a regulatory report that the KNF had imposed a fine of 9.9 million zlotys for violating rules in the provision of brokerage services. The company stated at the time that it disagreed with the decision and would appeal.
However, the dispute did not end in its favor. The KNF later informed that Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court dismissed XTB’s cassation appeal on February 28, 2023, and the original sanction thus upheld judicial review. According to supervision, the company failed to act in the best interest of its clients in 2014 and 2015.
France: Fine for Advertising, Client Questionnaires, and Technical Incident
Another confirmed monetary sanction came from France. The French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) in November 2021 announced that the disciplinary body issued a warning and a fine of 300,000 euros to X-Trade Brokers Dom Maklerski for breaching professional obligations in connection with the activities of its French branch.
The AMF stated that the company violated the ban on certain promotional communications regarding CFDs, some advertisements did not contain sufficiently visible warnings about the risk of capital loss, the questionnaire for assessing client knowledge and experience was inadequate, and the company incorrectly changed client categorization. The regulator also criticized it for not informing clients about a technical incident on the platform, even though it could have been significant for the proper execution of instructions.
XTB Faces Problems – Action Taken Outside Europe Too
Outside Europe, a publicly documented action is, for example, the procedure by Brazil’s Securities Commission CVM. In May 2023, in a declaratory act, it stated that XTB International Limited is not authorized to acquire clients with residency in Brazil or to act as a broker for securities trading.
The regulator also ordered the immediate cessation of any direct or indirect public offering of investment opportunities to Brazilian residents. For violating this order, it warned of the possibility of a daily fine of 1,000 Brazilian reals, without prejudice to possible liability for prior conduct.
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Polish Consumer Protection Authority Also Addressed the Issue
In addition to fines and supervisory actions, XTB also dealt with a dispute with the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK). From the company’s 2023 annual report, it emerges that the office contested two provisions of the terms and conditions as potentially prohibited contractual clauses. The December 2023 decision required the company to modify these provisions, publish the content of the decision, contact the affected group of clients, and provide compensation with interest to those whose complaints were dismissed based on the disputed provisions. No fine was imposed in this case, and the company stated it did not intend to appeal the decision.
Further Inspections Continuing in Several Countries
From XTB’s public reports, it also emerges that the company’s problems are not limited to final sanctions. In its first quarter 2025 report, the company stated that its Czech branch was inspected by the Czech National Bank and the company received a non-final decision on a fine of 2 million crowns, against which it filed an appeal.
At the same time, it also described other regulatory investigations – an inspection by Polish supervision, following which it is implementing subsequent recommendations, an audit of its Belizean subsidiary XTB International Limited by the local IFSC, an audit of its Spanish branch for AML compliance, an ongoing tax inspection in Poland, and also an inspection of its Portuguese branch by the local securities market authority.
XTB Faces Problems – Company Continues to Handle Client Lawsuits
In addition to regulatory proceedings, civil disputes remain in play. XTB stated in its first quarter 2025 report that the total value of claims raised against the company and group companies amounted to approximately 16.3 million zlotys. Of this, eight proceedings concerned client claims totaling approximately 13.4 million zlotys.
Already in the 2023 annual report, the company described in more detail, among other things, a dispute over allegedly insufficient implementation of security measures, for which the client allegedly suffered damage. The company rejected these allegations and stated that the court of first instance dismissed the lawsuit, while the plaintiff appealed.
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