The Cypriot financial regulatory authority, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), has issued a Cypriot Investment Firm (CIF) licences to BIA Blueport Investment Advisors Ltd., according to data published on June 15 on the regulator’s website.
The licence allows the entity to provide financial and ancillary services in Cyprus and across all EU, SMN Weekly reports.
The company obtained the CIF licence on 7 June, 2016, and has not been activated yet. Under the local regulatory framework, the CySEC grants a non-active CIF licence that is later activated, but not before the licensee meets certain conditions. Licensees cannot operate until their licence gets activated.
Financial service providers are not allowed to lawfully operate in Cyprus unless they hold a licence by the CySEC or the relevant authorities in any other EU member state. A CySEC licence, on its part, provides access to the EU markets. CySEC provides two types of CIF licences – limited, under which the financial company can execute orders on behalf of clients, but not on its own account, and full licence, which allows an entity to act on both its own behalf and that of clients.
To obtain a CIF licence, companies need to meet a number of requirements, which are sometimes more harsh than in other countries. They need to present an initial capital of a minimum €200,000 for limited licence or €730,000 for full licence.
CySEC regulation is preferred by many financial companies, forex and binary options brokers included. The watchdog licences, supervises, and regulates players on the local capital market. The CySEC’s managing board consists of five members, each one of which serves a term of five years.
Forex brokers with CIFs include FxPro, XM, FXTM, EXNESS, Hot Forex, and IronFX, among others. The latest entities to get a CySEC licence are Avus Capital (aka Trading 212), G.S.E Golden Sky Europe Ltd.,Spot Trading S.T. Ltd., Magic Compass Ltd., and Lydya Financial Ltd.
Source: Gold News
