Investment license in Antigua & Barbuda: issued regionally by the ECSRC.

Yes, a regional one. The ECSRC licenses broker-dealers, investment advisers and their principals and representatives for securities business in or from within the Currency Union, under Antigua's Securities Act. The FSRC issues no securities licence of its own, and the IBC Act, Cap. 222 licenses international banking, trust business and insurance.

A firm doing securities business in the Eastern Caribbean. It needs a company of an ECCU member territory with EC$1.0 million paid up as a broker-dealer or EC$250,000 as an investment adviser, a licensed principal and representative who passed the ECSM Certification Examination, and premises the ECSRC may inspect. On 7 November 2026 the register listed 16 broker-dealers, mostly banks and bank-group investment firms.

When your clients are worldwide. The licence authorises business in or from within the Currency Union at the place of business it designates (s. 36(1) of the 2020 Act) and gives no right to serve clients in the EU, the UK or the US. An international brokerage or fund manager licenses where those clients are: the BVI or Cayman for funds, Saint Lucia for a fund manager under the IMFA, Cap. 12.16, CySEC or a Baltic regulator for the EU, the DFSA for the Gulf.

The Securities Act, 2020 (No. 7 of 2020) or the Securities Act 2001 (No. 14 of 2001), which the 2020 Act repeals (s. 177). The 2020 Act comes into operation on a date the Minister appoints by notice in the Gazette (s. 1(2)), so the governing Act for a new file is confirmed with the ECSRC per case.

The ECSRC charges a broker-dealer EC$1,000 with the application, EC$3,000 on approval and EC$2,000 at each renewal on 1 April; an investment adviser company pays EC$3,000 on approval and EC$2,000 a year. On-site inspections are billed at the applicant's cost. Our own fee comes in writing after a free assessment.

Under the IBC Act, Cap. 222: international banking, in currencies foreign to every CARICOM country; international trust business; and international insurance of risks outside CARICOM, each with stated-capital requirements in its own section. The FSRC Act 2013 adds insurance, co-operatives, money services and corporate and trust service providers. Securities business is on neither list.

No. An IBC is a registration. 'Other international trading or commercial activities' under s. 4 of the IBC Act describes what a company may do, not an authorisation a regulator grants and supervises. A document sold as an 'Antiguan investment licence' with no entry on the ECSRC register is, in nearly every case, an IBC with confident wording.

Bring the documents. We check them against the ECSRC register, tell you exactly what you own, and rebuild the structure around an authorisation that exists: the ECSRC licence if your clients are in the ECCU, a licence elsewhere if they are not.

No. The country's investment-migration programme is a personal immigration matter and confers no financial-services authorisation of any kind.

Not a national one. Securities business, derivatives included, needs the ECSRC broker-dealer licence: s. 2 of the 2020 Act counts a derivative as a security and leaves currency out, and whether a CFD or rolling FX product falls under the licence is settled with the ECSRC product by product. Our Antigua and Barbuda forex page covers the broker-dealer file; the forex licence overview compares the 50 jurisdictions we work with.

Because we start with your client map and the ECSRC register, not with a product. From St John's we form the Antiguan company and prepare the ECSRC file with the licensed principal and representative, or build the licence elsewhere and keep the company as a layer.