The shape of a broker group
A typical group looks like this: a UK company with an FCA licence for British clients, a Cyprus company with a CySEC licence for the EU, sometimes a South African or Australian one, and an offshore company — Seychelles, Belize, Mauritius, St Vincent — that takes everyone else.
That last one is the important one, because "everyone else" is most of the world. If you are not in a country named on one of the licensed entities, the offshore company is who you are signing with, whatever licence is advertised on the homepage you arrived at.
What changes between them
Not the platform, not the spreads, not the support. What changes is everything that matters when something goes wrong.
- Compensation. The FCA’s FSCS covers up to £85,000 if the firm fails; CySEC’s ICF up to €20,000. Offshore entities have nothing equivalent.
- Leverage. 1:30 under EU and UK rules, 1:500 or 1:2000 offshore. The higher number is the offshore entity, always.
- Segregation. Whether client money is legally separate from the firm’s own is a licence condition in tier-1 jurisdictions and a promise elsewhere.
- Who hears a complaint. A UK client has the Financial Ombudsman. An offshore client has the company’s own complaints desk.
How to find out which one is yours
Before you deposit, not after. There are three places it is written down, and they should agree.
- The client agreement you tick to accept — the company name is in the first paragraph.
- The footer of the page you are on, which usually lists every entity and who each one serves.
- The confirmation email, which comes from the entity, not from the brand.
| UK company | FCA · authorised · FSCS up to £85,000 · UK clients |
|---|---|
| Cyprus company | CySEC · authorised · ICF up to €20,000 · EU clients |
| South Africa company | FSCA · authorised · no scheme · South African clients |
| Seychelles company | FSA · registered · no scheme · everyone else |
Every broker page here carries this map, because it is the single fact the marketing is organised to keep quiet, and it is the one that decides what you have.
Is the offshore entity a bad thing?
Not automatically. It is a trade: you get leverage a tier-1 regulator will not allow a retail client, and you give up the scheme that would pay you if the firm failed. Plenty of people take that trade knowingly.
What is not acceptable is taking it without being told. A broker that advertises its FCA licence to an audience it will onboard to Seychelles is not lying, exactly — and it is not telling you either. That gap is what this site exists to close. Start with brokers holding a tier-1 licence, or read how to check a licence yourself.