The Seychelles Authority offers a securities dealer license that is issued under the Securities Act 2007 which permits the activities of forex brokerage in currency derivatives and not in spot trading in currencies. Examples of the most common marketable securities are bonds, stocks, preferred shares and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
 
It is a territorial license, meaning that it would only cover the dealing in securities in or from Seychelles, and would require the licensee to have a presence of a substance in Seychelles.

Some of the advantages of having a securities dealer license in the Seychelles:

- modern and flexible securities law,
- well regulated jurisdiction,
- reasonable minimum capital requirement,
- reasonable license fees and
- low tax rate.

License Requirements

The applicant company is required to be incorporated under the Companies Ordinance, 1972. A company incorporated under the abovementioned Act has the following requirements: -
 
a.       minimum of 2 directors (natural persons);
b.       minimum of 2 shareholders (natural or legal persons) accordingly; and
c.       Have a Company Secretary.
 
All companies applying for a Securities Dealer license have to fulfill the following requirements as well: -
 
a.       To have a physical office in the Seychelles;
b.       Employ a Securities Dealer Representative (please refer to the link below for the representative application guideline and application form)
c.       Have a minimum paid up capital requirement of USD 50 000;
d.       Have a compliance officer who will be located in the Seychelles office; and
e.       All directors, representatives, and key persons must be approved by the Authority and be found fit and proper (as per Part 5 section 46 (5) of the Securities Act, 2007)

Guidelines, Forms and Legislation

The guidelines, application forms and relevant legislation to assist with lodging a Securities Dealer Licence application could be provided upon request.

The representative, directors, Ultimate Beneficial Owner and any other key persons for the above application are required to complete a Personal Questionnaire form.

Additional information

Under the Securities Act, 2007, a licensed securities dealer can trade in for instance foreign exchange derivatives, commodities and CFDs. Kindly refer to Schedule 1 of the Securities Act, 2007 for further details of the permissible activities of a Seychelles Securities Dealer. However, note that a licensed Securities Dealer cannot trade in spot forex as it not a permissible activity. This is due to the fact that the aforementioned activity falls under the purview of the Central Bank of Seychelles.
 
Please note that the Authority is in the process of finalizing the checklist of the internal controls and systems that will be required by all the licensee. In the meantime, please refer to the draft checklist attached for detailed information of what will be expected. Note that the checklist can be submitted together with the application pack though a finalized copy will be posted on our website as soon as same is complete and should be submitted accordingly with all applications.
 
Further to the above, please note that the Authority’s current Service Standard for processing of a Securities Dealer licence application, from receipt of a completed application for consideration by the Authority, is 6 weeks. However, it is important to note that this service standard will only be achievable if all the requisite information/documents are provided at the time the application is lodged. The Authority is not responsible for delays arising from the submission of incomplete or inaccurate applications. 
 
The following is to be noted further:
 
a.       The Authority will only process complete application. Applications that are deemed to be incomplete will be returned to the applicants. Applicants will have a period of 3 months for resubmission of the application. 
b.       Applications not submitted within the 3-months cut-off period will be considered as void and a new application would have to be lodged along with payment of the required application fee should the applicant remains interested in proceeding further with the application.