BaFin has issued a supervisory statement confirming that credit institutions and investment firms operating in Germany may no longer accept payments or other inducements from third parties in exchange for routing client orders — the practice commonly known as payment for order flow (PFOF).
For retail forex and CFD traders the point is execution quality. Where a broker is paid to send your orders to a particular market maker, the incentive to secure genuine best execution weakens, and the spread or fill you receive can quietly work against you. Removing that inducement pushes firms to compete on transparent pricing rather than hidden routing arrangements.
The licensing angle matters when choosing a broker. The statement bites hardest on neobrokers and app-first platforms authorised in Germany, several of which built low- or zero-commission models on PFOF revenue. Readers should favour brokers that publish clear execution policies and derive revenue from disclosed spreads or commissions rather than order-routing rebates. It also aligns Germany with the wider EU phase-out of PFOF under the MiFIR review, so expect similar pressure on CFD providers across the bloc.