After a series of circulars and announcements made by the Cypriot regulator in the last few weeks, all aimed to tighten online trading regulation, the question of whether or not the new rules would affect forex, CFDs or binary options brokers was on everyone's mind.
However, it seems that CySEC 's efforts were not that bad, since we have just found out that at least one broker out there is brave enough to expand its business to Cyprus. As we have just learned from a CySEC announcement, the multinational corporation Galactus Ltd has recently licensed its retail forex brand FX88 which has already been granted a CySEC Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) license.
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According to Galactus Ltd website, the parent company of FX88 is a multinational corporation headquartered in Cyprus, providing global market participants with access to financial services, technology and Liquidity .
The only statement on the newly created website further states: “Our business, FX88 is an online Forex brokerage with a special focus on Asia. Trade with FX88, a premier destination for traders. We are authorized and licensed by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), registration no. (xxx).”
As you may notice, Galactus haven’t updated its regulatory details yet, but based on CySEC’s filing FX88 was granted the following details:
- Licence Number: 322/17
- Licence Date: 25/04/2017
- Company Registration Number: 351644
This expansion will allow Galactus Ltd to begin a more Europe-oriented business and obviously, attract more customers – one of few ‘Asia-focused’ brokers to do so.
However, we may guess that the entire process of the firm's venture onto Cypriot territory began a while before the whole tightening process started. But the fact that the company went on with it anyway signals that forex brokers have not lost their trust in CySEC as a regulating authority and that Cyprus is a likely destination to base their operations.
Who knows, maybe fears that foreign exchange would exit the island for good will turn out to be unfounded.
