A forex licence in Europe is a MiFID II investment firm authorisation: one regulator grants it, and the passport lets the firm serve clients in the other member states. Capital follows the model: €750,000 if the broker deals with clients on own account, €150,000 for an agency broker allowed to hold client money, €75,000 without that permission. Below, 17 EU and EEA states are compared on fees, decision clocks and local substance, with the UK and Switzerland, which lack the EU passport, for contrast.
Updated · Reviewed by the Prifinance team
The IFD ties initial capital to the licensed services: €750,000 for dealing on own account, €75,000 for a firm that only receives, transmits or executes orders, manages portfolios or advises and may not hold client money or securities, €150,000 for the rest. A CFD market maker is the counterparty to every client trade, so it always sits in the top tier.
A licence from one member state works in another on a notice under MiFID II art. 34 or 35, with no second licence. The retail terms come from ESMA Decision 2018/796 and the national measures that replaced it between March 2019 and April 2020.
Same licence, same passport, same IFD capital. What changes is the fee, the clock, the legal form and the number of people the regulator wants running the firm.
| Country | Official fees | Clock, legal form and people |
|---|---|---|
| Ireland (Central Bank)More details → | 2026 levy for an own-account dealer rated Low: €29,778, plus €6,639 with client assets and €14,821 where the BRRD levy applies | Generally six months from a complete application; mind and management in Ireland, two directors and an independent non-executive |
| Bulgaria (FSC)More details → | €10,225.84 for a licence in the €750,000 tier; yearly fixed amounts per service (€818.07 for own-account dealing) plus 0.03% of revenue | Six months from a complete application, 25% of the capital paid in on filing; an AD or OOD in Bulgaria, run jointly by two people |
| Czechia (ČNB)More details → | CZK 100,000 for an application in the €750,000 tier (CZK 50,000 and CZK 20,000 below it) | Six months from a complete, defect-free application; an a.s. or s.r.o. with its real seat in Czechia and two people who actually run it |
| Poland (KNF)More details → | Up to the zloty equivalent of €4,500 for the licence; yearly up to 0.5% of three-year average revenue, at least the equivalent of €750 | Capital in zloty at the NBP average rate of the day before filing; an S.A. or sp. z o.o. seated in Poland, a board of at least two |
| Hungary (MNB)More details → | HUF 2,700,000 paid with the application (MNB decree in force from 1 August 2026) | Three months from a complete application, faster than MiFID II; an Rt. managed from Hungary with at least two executive managers |
| France (ACPR, AMF)More details → | AMF: €30,000 a year from firms licensed on 1 January, due by 30 June (€10,000 for advice or order transmission only) | The ACPR examines a complete file in six months; seat and effective management in France, two managers, and the AMF on the programme of activity |
| Italy (Consob, Banca d'Italia)More details → | Consob 2026 contribution: €5,890 plus 0.68% of investment-services revenue, for SIMs authorised on 2 January | Consob decides within six months of a complete application after hearing the Banca d'Italia; an S.p.A. with registered office and head office in Italy |
Amounts are in each regulator's currency: Poland sets fees and capital as zloty equivalents of euro sums, Czechia and Hungary charge in koruna and forint.
Country by country: regulator, licence type, capital, timelines and tax.
Dealing model, client countries, capital and people by regulator, and six steps from plan to launch.
Our licensed forex companies in Mauritius, Vanuatu and Cyprus, the regulator's approval of a new owner country by country and how to check an offer.
Application, grant and yearly fees and the minimum capital, regulator by regulator, from the rules in force.
Licence or registration, capital, fees, timelines and local substance in the offshore forex jurisdictions, with the official lists to check.
The UK and Switzerland license brokers under their own laws, and neither licence carries into the EU. The British capital scale repeats the IFD tiers in pounds.
| Regime | Passport and market access | Capital and decision clock |
|---|---|---|
| EU or EEA investment firm (MiFID II) | Passport: services in another member state once your regulator has passed the notice on, within a month; a branch once the file has gone over (within three months) and the host has replied or two months have passed | €750,000 for dealing on own account (IFD art. 9); a decision within six months of a complete file (MiFID II art. 7) |
| United Kingdom (FCA)More details → | No EU passport: the FCA says the passporting regime is no longer available after the Brexit transition period | £750,000 for dealing on own account (MIFIDPRU 4.4.1R); six months for a completed application, 12 in any case for an incomplete one (FSMA s. 55V) |
| Switzerland (FINMA)More details → | No passport: a foreign firm needs a FINMA licence for a Swiss branch, and a Swiss firm notifies FINMA before it opens a subsidiary or branch abroad | Securities firm: CHF 1.5 million of fully paid-up capital, but a forex dealer needs a banking licence; FINMA says the time depends on the quality and complexity of the application |
The directive sets the minimum, and national law adds to it. Here are the eight points every EU regulator tests, and what some states ask on top.
EU directives and regulations, national laws, fee rules and regulator pages behind the figures on this page.
Rules, fees and deadlines in force on 4 November 2026. If a regulator changes a figure, its own text linked here prevails.
We go through the model: own account or agency, retail or professional, client money or none. That gives the services, the IFR class and two or three states that fit. Our fee is fixed in writing after the free assessment.
We pick the state and the team: two people to run the firm, a compliance officer, a risk manager, an MLRO, and residents where the law wants them.
A company in a permitted form (an AS in Estonia, an S.A. or S.L. in Spain, an AG or SE in Liechtenstein), a head office and the capital for the class.
Business plan, policies, client money rules, AML and the capital calculation, then the fee and the filing.
We answer the regulator's questions while the managers pass the fitness and propriety check. After the licence: the compensation scheme, the register entry and the first yearly fees.
We tell your regulator where your clients will be. It passes a services notice on within a month and a branch file within three.
The forex market is full of intermediaries selling flags by the unit. Including flags that are not licences at all. We are a legal and advisory firm: we tell you what a route actually buys, build the file the supervisor reads, and stay on it after the licence is issued.
60+ specialists work on applications directly. Lawyers, compliance and finance people, not an outsourcing chain of resellers.
Before you pay anyone, you get a written view of what the licence does, where its limits run, and whether it is a licence at all. We have written that opinion about offers already sitting on a client's desk.
The quote you approve is the price you pay. Government, regulator, audit and capital costs are stated separately and upfront.
Business plans, capital models, client-money and conduct architecture and AML/CFT packs drafted to the standards CySEC, the FCA, ASIC and the FSA actually check.
Fee and reporting calendars, renewals, representative filings, audits, and the migration path when a project outgrows the licence it started on.
15 years in FinTech and payments. Maps your dealing model to the right licence class and leads the file to the regulator's decision, including banking and payment rails.
Builds the application itself: the local company, AML/KYC policy pack, capital structure and tax registrations. His document sets are the reason reviews finish in months, not years.
First point of contact for international founders. Runs the whole setup remotely, across time zones and languages - from the first call to a live, licensed broker.
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A MiFID II investment firm authorisation that covers currency derivatives and CFDs. Rolling spot FX sits in point (4) of Annex I Section C, CFDs in point (9), and a broker that deals with clients on its own account holds the service of dealing on own account. The regulator of the head office state grants it, CySEC in Cyprus, the MFSA in Malta or BaFin in Germany, and the passport carries it into the other member states.
A licence is not registered like a company: you register the company, and the regulator grants the licence once it has examined the firm. The order is the same in every member state. Model and state first, then a company with its head office there, two people to run it and capital for the IFD class, then the file, the fee and the application. After the decision you notify your regulator of the states where your clients will be.
IFD art. 9 sets it: €750,000 for dealing on own account and underwriting on a firm commitment basis, €75,000 for receiving, transmitting and executing orders, portfolio management and advice without the right to hold client money or securities, €150,000 otherwise. Once licensed, own funds must cover the highest of the IFR requirements: the permanent minimum, a quarter of last year's fixed overheads and, outside class 3, the K-factors.
On entry fees, Latvia: Latvijas Banka is the one regulator on this page that says outright it charges nothing to examine an application or grant the licence. Afterwards it takes up to 1.4% of average quarterly gross income, at least €5,000 a year. Lithuania charges €947, Estonia €3,000, Cyprus €7,000, and Luxembourg €50,000 plus €123,750 a year for dealing on own account. Capital is the same everywhere, so yearly fees, people and premises decide the total. Our own fee is set in writing after a free assessment.
MiFID II gives the regulator six months from a complete application (art. 7(3)), and almost every EU state on this page has kept that period. The Netherlands is faster at 13 weeks from receipt, Hungary at three months, Estonia at two months from a complete file and six at most from filing. Most clocks start only with a complete file, so in practice the file sets the timing; the Dutch terms and Estonia's six-month limit run from filing. Luxembourg treats silence after 12 months as a refusal.
A firm licensed in one member state may provide the same services in any other (MiFID II art. 34). Without a branch, you notify your own regulator, it passes the information to the host state within one month, and you may start. A branch or tied agents take longer: the file goes over within three months, and the branch opens once the host regulator replies or two months after transmission. Under Liechtenstein law, a Liechtenstein licence is valid in every EEA state.
Capital and clock are the same: €750,000 for dealing on own account and six months from a complete file. Fees and substance differ. Cyprus asks €7,000 to apply and from €10,000 a year, plus €3,000 for CFDs. Malta asks €15,000 to apply in 2026 and €19,000 from 2027, and a supervisory fee from €17,500 in 2026 (€20,000 in 2027, €22,500 from 2028); a firm filing now usually pays its first supervisory fee at the 2027 rate. From the second year a class 2 firm pays the investor compensation scheme €22,000 a year if it may deal on own account, €7,000 if not. The MFSA also wants core activities in Malta, a locally based director and dual control; CySEC adopted ESMA's leverage limits unchanged in 2019.
For retail clients, at most 30:1 on pairs of any two of USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD and CHF, 20:1 on other pairs, gold and major indices, 10:1 on other commodities and minor indices, 5:1 on shares and other underlyings, and 2:1 on cryptocurrencies. These are the 3.33%, 5%, 10%, 20% and 50% initial margins of Annex I to ESMA Decision 2018/796. ESMA's own measure expired at the end of 31 July 2019, and national measures that ESMA describes as at least as strict now apply these limits to sales to retail clients.
No. The FCA states that the passporting regime is no longer available after the Brexit transition period, so a UK licence cannot be passported into the EU; that takes a firm licensed in an EU or EEA state. A Swiss FINMA licence carries no passport either, and a foreign exchange dealer domiciled in Switzerland needs a banking licence.
The floor is much the same everywhere: a head office in the licensing state and, as a rule, two people who actually direct the firm; Germany insists on two wherever the firm may hold client money. Above it, states differ. Luxembourg wants both managers resident in Luxembourg or the Greater Region, with a six-month exemption possible for one; Liechtenstein wants managers working at the seat; Spain a board of three; Ireland a significant senior management presence. The MFSA states outright that outsourcing must not turn a firm into a letterbox entity.
Tell us how you will execute client orders, who your clients are and in which EU states they live. Our legal team replies in writing with the state, the capital class, the timeline, the official fees, a passport plan and our fixed fee.
