Exclusive: 26 Degrees Is Surrendering Its CySEC Licence

Prime brokerage firm 26 Degrees intends to surrender its CySEC licence. While the Limassol office will remain operational, it will serve as a branch supporting the firm’s international activities.

The decision is driven by the firm's desire to concentrate on institutional services, particularly hedge fund operations, amid growing regulatory challenges with the Cypriot authorities. This move may also be linked to the recent departure of Riana Chaili, the former CEO for the EMEA region. We reached out to 26 Degrees, but the company declined to comment.

Apart from Chaili, Lochlan White recently stepped down from his role as EMEA Chief Commercial Officer, based out of the Cyprus office, to join Scope Prime. He parted ways with the Gavin White-run company after spending 11 years in various roles.

Surrendering the CySEC Licence after a Year

26 Degrees is headquartered in Australia and offers prime brokerage services to broker-dealers and hedge funds. As reported by Finance Magnates earlier, the company gained its Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) licence in 2023 to expand its presence in the European Economic Area. Interestingly, it had established and strengthened its Cyprus office even before obtaining the licence on the Mediterranean island.

Months ahead of obtaining the Cyprus licence, the company also rebranded from Invast Global to 26 Degrees. At the time, Group CEO Gavin White told Finance Magnates that his company was compelled to rebrand due to the exponential growth of its institutional prime services business in the last five years.

After surrendering the CySEC licence, the company will be left only with regulatory approval from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Meanwhile, 26 Degrees continues to innovate with its product offerings. In July, it launched Pairs CFDs, which allow the trading of index vs. index, commodity vs. commodity, or equity vs. equity, similar to forex pairs. According to the company, these Pairs CFDs can be constructed to enhance or reduce volatility, depending on the correlation between the instruments.