How to start a forex brokerage: dealing model first, then the license and capital.

Six moves, in this order. Decide how you will execute orders, agency or own account, and where your clients live. Pick the jurisdiction and licence class that cover those clients. Set up the local company, pay in the capital and appoint the people the regulator has to approve. Build the file: business plan, manuals, AML and client-money procedures, platform and liquidity contracts. Answer the regulator's questions until it decides. Then open bank and payment accounts and go live.

It depends on the model and the country. In the EU: €75,000 for a pure agency firm that never holds client money, €150,000 if it does, €750,000 for dealing on own account, matched principal included. The UK sets £75,000, £150,000 and £750,000 on the same logic. Offshore, the Seychelles wants US$100,000 in a bank account, Mauritius MUR 1,000,000, Belize BZ$1,000,000 for trading as principal, Vanuatu a VT 5,000,000 deposit and Labuan RM1,000,000 paid up. Capital is not a fee and remains the company's money, though Vanuatu's deposit stays with the Commissioner for as long as the licence lasts.

Not if your company onboards clients and handles their orders. In the EU even receiving and transmitting orders is an investment service that needs authorisation, and a white-label platform gives you software and liquidity, not a licence. The lighter legal route in the EU is to act as a tied agent of a licensed firm, which stays fully responsible for you and has you entered in a public register (MiFID II art. 29). A company registered in St Vincent or Saint Lucia does not solve it either: neither country licenses forex brokerage.

The one your clients need. EU retail clients require a MiFID II firm in a member state, passported to the other 29 EEA states; any EU state can grant it, Cyprus and Estonia among them. UK retail requires the FCA. For clients outside the EU and the UK, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Vanuatu license dealers and Belize registers them, with capital from MUR 1,000,000 in Mauritius to BZ$1,000,000 in Belize. Labuan is aimed at institutional and high-net-worth clients.

It depends on where the clock starts. EU regulators must decide within 6 months of a complete file. The FCA usually assesses a complete application in 6 months, and an incomplete one can take up to 12 from the day it arrives. Georgia's central bank decides within 45 working days of receiving the application, with at most 15 more, and the Seychelles FSA works to a 30 working day service standard for a complete file. Before any of that come the company, the capital, the people and the documents, and how fast they are ready is mostly up to you.

Often yes, and the rules spell it out. A Seychelles dealer has needed a resident director working full time since 1 January 2025, plus two resident fit and proper people on hand at every moment. Vanuatu can refuse a licence unless the firm has an office there with a manager or director living in the country six months a year, or a licensed manager. A domestic Mauritius dealer needs two officers based there full time. In the EU the head office has to sit in the state that grants the licence.

The capital and the scope. Taking the other side of client trades is dealing on own account: €750,000 in the EU, £750,000 in the UK, and both treat back-to-back matched principal trades the same way, even when the model is sold as STP. A pure agency broker that never becomes the client's counterparty needs €75,000 or £75,000 while it never holds client money, €150,000 or £150,000 once it does. In Labuan a money broker may not act as principal at all.

Not retail clients. To market to them you need a MiFID II authorisation in a member state or FCA permission, and an offshore dealer licence or registration is neither. An EU passport no longer reaches the UK either. Offshore licences carry clients in countries that allow foreign brokers, which is why groups often pair one with an EU or UK firm.

A trading platform, your own or a white label, liquidity providers, banks for company and client money, payment providers and an auditor. Plan the launch together with the licence. In Vanuatu the licence can be revoked if trading has not started within 6 months of the grant, and an EU firm notifies its passport through the home regulator, which forwards it within one month for cross-border services and within three months for a branch.

Yes, but the regulator approves the buyer first. In the EU anyone acquiring 10% or more of an investment firm, or crossing 20%, 30% or 50%, has to notify the regulator in advance. It has 60 working days to assess them, plus up to 20 more (30 for buyers from outside the EU) while it waits for answers. In the UK, completing the purchase before approval is a criminal offence. The company's history and liabilities come with it, so the checks before signing matter as much as the price. Prifinance also sells licensed forex companies of its own, in Mauritius, Vanuatu and Cyprus.