XTB adds options to its Polish platform terms, signaling a major product expansion in its home market.
XTB adds options to its Polish platform terms, signaling a major product expansion in its home market.
XTB adds options trading to its Polish platform terms, expanding its home market offering amid regulatory scrutiny and competition.
Key Points:
XTB has written options trading into the terms of service governing its Polish platform, moving one step closer to offering one of the most profitable and most scrutinized products in retail brokerage to clients in its home country.
According to a notice sent to platform users, the updated rules take effect on June 29. However, the broker has not confirmed whether Polish clients will gain access to the product from that date or whether a separate launch announcement will follow.
The change closes a notable gap. XTB has spent much of 2026 rolling options out across Europe, yet Poland, where the company is headquartered and publicly listed, remained the holdout while other markets moved ahead.
The updated rules reference both American and European-style options. The eligible underlying instruments span stocks, contracts for difference, ETFs, indices, currencies, and commodities. A broker margin of 0.25% would apply to each transaction, with no currency-conversion fee attached.
That scope, on paper, exceeds what XTB has launched in practice elsewhere. In its other European markets, the company currently offers American-style options on 110 U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs, structured as cash-settled, buy-only contracts. Clients can purchase options but cannot write them. Whether Poland receives this narrower version or something broader remains unclear.
XTB launched its first options market in Cyprus in January 2026 under local regulatory supervision. Germany and Spain followed in April, and France, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia joined weeks later, bringing the total to seven active markets.
Throughout that expansion, Poland waited. The company, founded in 2002 and led by Chief Executive Omar Arnaout, served more than two million clients globally at the end of 2025. Regulatory clearance had held back the home market launch longer than any other territory on the rollout list.
The commercial logic behind the push is straightforward. At Robinhood, options generated $314 million in transaction revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing roughly 40% of the firm’s total transaction-based income and a 41% increase from the same period a year earlier.
XTB enters a Polish market that is already becoming crowded. Trade Republic, the German neobroker offering leveraged derivatives including knock-outs and warrants, entered Poland in September 2025. Interactive Brokers and IG Group also compete for the same pool of active traders.
Analyst Kris Abramowicz, who publishes under the handle @marketrev_eu, expects options to become a significant revenue driver for XTB given the broker’s established retail reach. He described the product as a new instrument for retail speculation in a post on X.
The timing carries weight beyond the commercial calendar. Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority, known as the KNF, issued a 20 million zloty fine against XTB in a decision dated March 30. The penalty covered compliance failures between January 2022 and September 2023, including inadequate checks on whether clients properly understood the risks associated with complex financial instruments.
XTB filed for reconsideration in May, meaning the decision is not yet final and carries no immediate payment obligation. The company has, however, already recognized the amount in its first-quarter financial estimates.
Options sit firmly within the category of complex, leveraged products that European regulators monitor most closely, making the scrutiny around this particular launch more acute than most.
Beyond options, XTB has moved on several other fronts in 2026 as it competes for client deposits. The broker has introduced crypto exchange-traded notes and added a caller-identity verification feature to its client phone support system.
In a separate operational update, XTB extended trading hours on 745 ETFs, ETNs, and ETCs to a window running from 07:30 to 22:00, up from the previous 09:00 to 17:30 schedule. The change covers widely held funds tracking the S&P 500 and major global equity indices, giving clients substantially more time to act on price movements in key benchmarks.
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