St. Kitts, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Marshall Islands – An Offshore Registration Comparison & Overview
For over a decade, St. Vincent was the primary offshore jurisdiction for the registration of new forex brokerages. Due to the speed of formation, low costs, and simple KYC there was no other offshore venue that could compete with St. Vincent & The Grenadines. The dominance of St. Vincent came to an end in early 2023 when local authorities halted the registration of new forex brokerages.
This change happened rather quickly which created a scramble for new formation and re-domiciliation options. In today’s post we’ll briefly highlight what took place after St. Vincent ceased to offer registration options.
St. Kitts – A Brief Alternative to SVG
For a brief period of time in early 2023, it appeared that St. Kitts would assume the throne once occupied by St. Vincent. This turned out to be short lived as the St. Kitts authorities quickly shut their doors to new forex broker registrations and re-domiciliation requests. While we never obtained a direct response, we assume the St. Kitts authorities simply did not wish to suffer the same fate as St. Vincent.
Marshall Islands – No Longer Available to Forex & CFD Brokers
After the fallout from St. Vincent, clients approached us about registering or redomiciling their forex broker in Marshall Islands. It was logical to ask about Marshall Islands since some brokers were registered there during the roughly 10 year period where St. Vincent had a monopoly on offshore formations.
The reason Marshall Islands never rose to the same level of popularity as St. Vincent was mostly due to price and speed of formation. Because Marshall Islands offered no clear advantage over St. Vincent, it was passed up by most brokers due to higher formation costs. Upon revisiting the opportunity to incorporate or redomicile forex brokerages in Marshall Islands, we discovered the local authorities followed the path of St. Vincent and no longer offer company formation options for FX & CFD brokers.
St. Lucia – The DeFacto Offshore Location
With St. Vincent, Marshall Islands, and St. Kitts refusing to register new forex brokers for their own unique reasons, St. Lucia ended up being the “last island standing.” It’s important to highlight that St. Lucia offers the same benefit that St. Vincent once did: an offshore jurisdiction which permits forex & CFD trading to unlicensed forex brokers.
The point on licensing is worth highlighting. We are often asked why it is not possible to register a a new forex broker in regions like Seychelles, Cayman Islands, or Mauritius. The simple answer is that all of the jurisdictions listed have a regulatory framework for FX and CFD brokers. In other words, brokers must be licensed to legally operate out of those jurisdictions, hence the attraction of St. Lucia which does not offer forex & CFD broker licensing.
If you are looking to either obtain an offshore forex broker license or simply register a company, Atomiq Consulting is here to help. With years of experience working with global regulators, we remain the top choice for both new and established forex brokers.
