FSCA regulated forex brokers in South Africa

FSP licence and ODP authorisation: two permissions

Section 7(1) of the FAIS Act: a person may not act or offer to act as a financial services provider unless it has been issued with a licence under section 8. A financial services provider is one that, as a regular feature of its business, gives advice, renders an intermediary service, or both.

Regulation 2 of the Financial Markets Act Regulations (Government Gazette 41433, 9 February 2018): a person may not act, advertise or hold itself out as an OTC derivative provider unless authorised by the FSCA under section 6(8) of the Act. An OTC derivative provider is a person who, as a regular feature of its business and transacting as principal, originates, issues or sells OTC derivatives or makes a market in them. A retail forex CFD is an OTC derivative.

The FAIS Ombud’s note on online trading complaints adds a third point: most trading platforms it sees are registered as FSPs but limited to intermediary services, not advice, and say so in their terms.

FSCA regulated forex brokers list: 12 companies, 12 brands

Generated from our broker data (up to 19 Oct 2026). The FSP number is the one to search on the FSCA register. The ODP column shows what FSCA’s list of approved OTC derivative providers said on 21 Oct 2026, searched by company name; that list prints no FSP numbers.

The last column is our data check of 20 Oct 2026: 3 companies found by name on the ODP list, FSP numbers not matched. For the other 9, the number is as published by the broker; check it on the FSCA register.

Intermediary or issuer: which company you trade with

For AvaTrade, Exness and XM, the FSCA company introduces you and the CFDs come from another company in the group. The issuer is the counterparty to every CFD you open. On 21 Oct 2026 FSCA’s ODP list showed “EXNESS SC (LTD)”, approved (foreign); “EXNESS MARKETS ZA (PTY) LTD”, applied, and it had no entry for Ava Trade Markets Ltd or XM Global Limited.

• Exness: Exness ZA (Pty) Ltd (FSP 51024) acts as intermediary; derivatives are issued by Exness (SC) Ltd, regulated by the FSA Seychelles. Exness does not accept retail clients from the UK, the EEA, the US or Canada. Its FCA and CySEC companies serve business clients only; retail accounts are opened with offshore entities (Seychelles, Curaçao, BVI) or regional ones (South Africa, Kenya, Jordan).
• AvaTrade: Ava Capital Markets (Pty) Ltd (FSP 45984) is only an intermediary; the issuer for South African clients is Ava Trade Markets Ltd, regulated by the BVI FSC.
• XM: XM ZA (Pty) Ltd (FSP 49976) says it is neither the market maker nor the product issuer; derivatives are offered by XM Global Limited, regulated by the FSC Belize. The XM brand runs on an offshore entity (FSC Belize, leverage up to 1:1000) and a CySEC entity for the EEA; the group’s FCA, ASIC and US licences belong to the sister brand Trading.com, not to XM.

Being an intermediary is legal under an FSP licence. What changes is which company stands on the other side of your trades, so find the issuer’s name in the client agreement before you deposit.

What else FSCA’s derivative provider list showed on 21 Oct 2026

4 brands had an approved entry: Exness, IG, Plus500 and ThinkMarkets. The other brands, one by one:

• Admirals: entry “ADMIRALS SA (PTY) LTD”, withdrawn. The broker’s legal documents name Admirals SA (Pty) Ltd, but its current FAQ lists only its UK, European and Seychelles companies, so we have not confirmed the South African company is active.
• FXCM: entry “FXCM”, application Withdrawn. FXCM serves South Africa through Stratos South Africa (Pty) Ltd. Its UK and Australian companies are closed to new retail clients in our data: ASIC issued an interim stop order on 5 Dec 2025 that stopped FXCM Australia (Stratos Trading Pty Ltd) from opening new retail CFD accounts; we have not confirmed whether it was lifted.
• Tickmill: entry “TICKMILL LTD”, withdrawn. Our data lists Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd with an FSP number only.
• Pepperstone has no FSCA company in our data; its entry on the list is “PEPPERSTONE GROUP LIMITED”, application withdrawn.
• Vantage: no entry on the ODP list. A third-party report, not verified with the regulator, mentions a Securities Commission Malaysia investor alert (2021). A 2022 VFSC notice of intention to revoke the licence of Vantage Global Limited is not reflected in the current VFSC list: on 20 Oct 2026 the licence was shown as active, dated 22 Aug 2023.

Leverage and negative balance: no South African figure we can quote

Neither the FAIS Act nor the 2018 Financial Markets Act Regulations sets a retail leverage limit; FSCA conduct standards for derivative providers may add rules, and we have not checked them. So, unlike the FCA, ASIC or CySEC pages, this page prints no cap.

Only one FSCA company in our data publishes a South African leverage figure: FXCM (Stratos South Africa (Pty) Ltd): 30:1 default for major currency pairs (as stated on fxcm.com/za open-account page). For the rest, ask for the maximum leverage on your account in writing.

How to complain: the broker, then the FAIS Ombud

Write to the broker first and keep proof. If it has not resolved the complaint within six weeks, take it to the FAIS Ombud. Since the Ombud Council Rules of 1 July 2024 the Ombud can hear claims up to R3,500,000 (it was R800,000); above that, you give up the excess or the firm agrees to the Ombud hearing it. You have three years from when you became aware of the problem, and the Ombud will not investigate once you go to court on the same matter.

Two limits matter to traders. The Ombud no longer takes complaints against unregistered providers and refers them to the FSCA instead. And in online trading cases where the client placed the trades personally and the terms excluded advice, it has often been unable to hold the platform liable for the losses.

Brands in our data without an FSCA company

CMC Markets, eToro, IC Markets, Interactive Brokers, OANDA, Pepperstone, Saxo and XTB. They may still accept South African residents through another company; the South Africa ranking shows which ones do and under which regulator.