A decade ago, launching a foreign‐exchange brokerage demanded a Cyprus Investment Firm licence, a Belize IFSC permit, or a Mauritius FSC Category 1 Global Business Company. Each involved six-month waiting lists, six‐figure capital locks, and public registers that splashed founders’ names across Google. In 2025, the Anjouan forex license offers a far lighter runway. Issued by the Offshore Finance Authority on the Indian Ocean island of Anjouan, the document lets you sell spot FX, multi asset contracts for difference, crypto denominated pairs, and even PAMM management programmes, all while preserving owner privacy, flexible capital rules, and a thirty-day approval cycle.
This guide explains exactly what the Anjouan forex licence covers, who tends to use it, how it compares with rival offshore frameworks, and the operational guardrails that keep global counterparties comfortable. By the end, you will know whether a Comorian structure delivers the credibility and agility your brokerage, exchange, or liquidity desk needs before you step up to higher tier jurisdictions.
Why international brokers are homing in on the Anjouan forex license
Three macro trends have propelled the rise of the Anjouan forex license:
The first trend is cost pressure. Retail spreads have collapsed, rebates have eaten into gross revenue, and clients expect zero-commission trading. Firms can no longer spend three hundred thousand dollars on licence fees before onboarding their first lot.
The second trend is crypto convergence. Traders want BTC-USD and EUR-JPY on one account. Developed markets still argue over how to classify tokenised commodities, but the Anjouan forex license leaves the decision to the brokerage’s own risk committee.
Last but not least, the third trend is speed to market. TikTok, Telegram, and Discord move faster than regulators in traditional hubs. Marketers must launch campaigns in weeks, not quarters, or the moment passes. Anjouan’s thirty-to-forty-day issuance keeps pace with virality.
The result is the Anjouan forex license, an offshore permit that functions as a stepping stone: credible enough to sign liquidity and banking agreements, economical enough to preserve runway, and portable enough to integrate with European or Gulf holding companies later.
What activities does the Anjouan forex license allow?
Once the OFA stamps your certificate, your company may:
Offer retail and institutional spot FX
In every major, minor, and exotic pair. Leverage caps are self-imposed, leaving you free to mirror ESMA’s thirty-to-one standard or Asia’s five-hundred-to-one promotions.
List contracts for difference
On indices, energies, metals, soft commodities, equities, and ETFs. You may operate a dealing desk, A-book straight-through process, or a hybrid.
Provide crypto-FX hybrids
Such as ETH-JPY or tokenised gold versus euro. The regulator focuses on AML policy rather than coin selection.
Aggregate liquidity
From Prime of Prime venues, ECN pools, or proprietary market-making algorithms. Direct market access and bridge technology are fully permitted.
Run PAMM, MAM, and copy-trade funds
Subject to clear risk disclosure. Investors allocate capital to master accounts, and your firm earns performance fees.
Deliver white-label MT4 or MT5 services
To regional introducing brokers, complete with your own dealing-hub risk engine.
Operate training and educational portals
integrated with real trading accounts. Signal providers can monetise subscription revenue inside the same licensed entity.
These capabilities mirror a MiFID investment dealing licence but without European capital or physical presence obligations.
Who is the Anjouan forex license good for?
Marketing agencies
Marketing agencies that already run large traffic funnels for trading education and want to internalise brokerage revenue instead of sending leads to third parties.
Crypto exchanges
Crypto exchanges that aim to diversify revenue via non-correlated FX and CFD products while keeping a single client wallet.
Proprietary-trading firms
Proprietary-trading firms seeking a public retail arm, allowing them to monetise flow data, provide educational copy trading, and raise discretionary AUM.
Regional liquidity desks
Regional liquidity desks in MENA or South-East Asia that need a global umbrella under which to service introducing brokers without negotiating separate licences in each country.
Financial influencers and educators
Financial influencers and educators converting their audience into a white-label trading community with legal cover for deposits, withdrawals, and revenue share.
Our working hours: Monday to Friday, 9 AM – 6 PM GMT+4
Step-by-step timeline: From handshake to licence in hand
The journey starts with a concise strategy call during which you outline product range, leverage policy, and target geography. Within the first week Aston VIP reserves a company name, drafts articles of association, and appoints directors or nominees as required for anonymity or geopolitical distance. The second week is devoted to building the core dossier: three-year revenue projections, IT-security statements, and an AML manual tailored to your chosen deposit channels.
On approximately day nineteen, Aston VIP’s local counsel files the application at the Offshore Finance Authority. A brief period of regulator questions follows. They may ask for clarification on the source of shareholder funds or further detail on trading-server architecture. Once these points are cleared, the Authority issues the licence and a letter of good standing, typically between days thirty-one and thirty-eight. The entire cycle, from business-plan drafting to receiving the certificate, therefore fits comfortably inside forty days.
Capital and team obligations
Share capital
The OFA lets applicants propose their own figure. Aston recommends at least one hundred thousand United States dollars for brokers offering leverage, rising to two hundred thousand if you intend to warehouse client risk. The cash remains in your corporate bank or prime broker account and is not locked on the island.
Resident presence
None required. Directors can be based anywhere. Nominee officers are available where anonymity or geopolitical distance is desired.
Compliance officer and MLRO
Optional under Anjouan rules. However, if you want European EMIs or Caribbean correspondent banks, Aston will recruit part-time remote officers who satisfy FATF fit-and-proper standards.
Audit
Annual audit is not mandatory, though a basic management account and licence renewal questionnaire must be filed each year.
"These capital and team obligations stand in sharp contrast to Cyprus’s 125-thousand-euro tier-one capital and four local director framework."
Why choose Anjouan over other jurisdictions?
Speed
Anjouan’s sub-forty-day throughput outpaces Belize’s one-hundred-day average and leaves Cyprus’s nine-to-twelve-month queue far behind.
Capital locks
Belize still demands at least one hundred thousand dollars escrow with the regulator, and Mauritius insists on a quarter of a million. Anjouan’s flexible pledge keeps cash in your trading account, where it can earn spread revenue rather than sit dormant.
Public registers
Cyprus and Belize publish shareholder names on open corporate portals. Anjouan logs only a licence number and company name, protecting founders from nosey competitors.
Crypto tolerance
Mauritius and Belize shy away from tokenised pairs or stablecoin deposits. In Anjouan, the rule is simple: follow your own AML policy and avoid sanctioned addresses.
Banking network
Cyprus unlocks SEPA instantly via local clearing, but Anjouan can pair with Aston VIP-arranged European EMI accounts and Caribbean Prime of Prime providers, delivering MT4 bridge connectivity and fiat settlement while preserving offshore entity privacy.
In short, Anjouan wins on speed and flexibility, while on-shore EU jurisdictions excel in prestige and banking convenience. For an early-stage broker, starting offshore and migrating later once revenues justify cost is becoming an industry standard.
Banking, PSP, and liquidity solutions for Anjouan brokers
A licence alone does not secure payment rails. Aston maintains vetted relationships with:
- European Electronic Money Institutions offering segregated IBANs, card processing, and SEPA instant credits to offshore entities.
- Caribbean and Pacific Prime of Prime brokers supplying tier-one liquidity, FIX API connections, and credit lines for leverage.
- Crypto-friendly banking desks that hold stablecoin treasuries, run on-chain settlement, and manage hedging conversions to fiat.
- Asian PSPs for alternative payments such as DragonPay, WeChat Pay, or local e-wallets in Indonesia and Thailand.
We prepare risk memoranda, legal opinions, and compliance packs that reassure these financial partners a legitimate regulator backs your business.
Get the most relevant information about business life in Dubai
Operational blue-print after licence issuance
Once you possess the certificate, Aston assists with:
Platform architecture
Decision matrix between MT5 server purchase, MT4 white label, or multi-asset SaaS platforms such as cTrader or Match-Trade.
Client onboarding funnels
This includes funnels that combine liveness checks, sanction screening, and leverage disclosures inside a branded dashboard.
Risk management rules
Leverage tiers by instrument, negative-balance protection thresholds, and toxic-flow filters to appease liquidity partners.
Reporting lines
Daily equity, margin-call triggers, suspicious-activity alerts, and monthly client-money reconciliations. While not mandated by Anjouan, these routines smooth future passporting to stricter regimes.
Marketing compliance
Content and social campaigns vetted for ESMA, ASIC, and MAS guideline overlap, thus reducing refusal rates when payment networks inspect your web assets.
In effect, we overlay near-MiFID standards on an offshore licence to make the brokerage bank-grade without incurring on-shore red tape.
Real examples: How our clients use the license
MT5 white-label for emerging-market influencers
A marketing collective in Kuala Lumpur commanded a three-million follower pool across TikTok and Instagram but lacked a regulated endpoint to monetise signals. With an Anjouan licence, they launched a co-branded MT5 in forty days, used Aston VIP’s EMI partner in Lithuania for card processing, and now clear six hundred lots daily.
Crypto plus FX gateway in the Gulf
A Dubai exchange needed to satisfy traders who wanted leverage on BTC-EUR and ETH-USD pairs. UAE regulations had not yet finalised derivatives rules, so the founders incorporated an Anjouan brokerage. They route client hedging orders to a London Prime of Prime, while keeping spot wallets in a VARA-registered entity. Revenue doubled without breaching local restrictions.
Liquidity hub for African remittance apps
Two Kenyan engineers built a USDC-to-Kenia-shilling remittance tool, needing real-time FX hedging. The Anjouan licence allowed them to hold multi-currency treasuries, execute conversions at wholesale spreads, and feed rates back to their consumer app. End users now get five percent better transfer rates than with traditional bank corridors.
"Aston VIP provides complete support, including licence filing, nominee structures, platform sourcing, and introductions to EMI and Prime of Prime banking partners."
Risk management and jurisdictional caveats
Anjouan’s leniency is double-edged. Founders must self-impose controls to avoid correspondent blacklisting:
Reject users from FATF high-risk jurisdictions
A single DPRK IP address can collapse a banking relationship.
Set sensible leverage ceilings
Public scrutiny may intensify if the firm markets five-hundred-times leverage without negative-balance protection.
Keep segregation of client funds
Separate wallets or bank accounts for operational capital versus client margin, recorded daily.
Disclose risk
Aston VIP drafts plain-English warnings on slippage, margin calls, and potential loss of entire balance.
These measures help defend against “unlicensed bucket shop” accusations that sometimes dog offshore brokers.
Fee matrix and ongoing obligations
Government filing fee
Typically twenty-five to thirty-five thousand dollars, variable with capital pledge.
Aston VIP turnkey package
Bespoke quotation includes incorporation, dossier drafting, nominee provisioning, and three months of compliance mentoring.
Annual renewal
Low four-figure regulator payment plus an activity report summarising revenue, client count, and AML incidents.
Optional extras
Platform sourcing, card- programme host, SWIFT code registration, external SOC-2 compliance audit.
All charges are staged, with the largest tranche released only once the licence letter is uploaded to your shareholder portal.
Beyond forex, expanding into payments and banking
Many clients treat Anjouan as phase one. Once monthly volumes cross a million dollars, Aston layers additional licences:
- Anjouan international banking licence for accepting client deposits directly, offering stablecoin interest accounts, or launching white-label debit cards.
- Cyprus Payment Institution to lock down SEPA rails and EU consumer trust.
- Dubai DIFC holding company to access Gulf investors and eventually transition to a VARA full market-product licence when budgets allow.
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Compared to Cyprus, Belize, or Mauritius, Anjouan offers faster licensing, no public registers, crypto-friendliness, and lower capital hurdles.
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Clients use the license to launch MT5 brokerages, run hybrid crypto-FX platforms, or build FX liquidity hubs for remittance apps.
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Anjouan brokers can scale into banking or payment licences in Anjouan, Cyprus, or Dubai, forming a multi-entity setup aligned to growth and compliance needs.
Why brokers choose Aston VIP rather than minimalist paper-filers
Comprehensive compliance
We do not hand over a licence and disappear. Quarterly calls, transaction-monitoring templates, and self-assessment kits keep you bank-ready.
Banking introductions
Our EMI and Prime of Prime partners already accept Anjouan entities structured by Aston. That saves months of rejection loops.
Nominee discretion
When confidentiality is paramount, we supply tested nominee directors and shareholders backed by ironclad indemnities.
Tech vendor discounts
Through aggregated demand, we secure lower MT5 server and CRM licence costs than direct retail rates, trimming start-up burn.
Strategic journey planning
We have moved founders from offshore bootstrapping to MiFID, VARA, and MAS licences without losing client data or brand equity.
Ready to take your brokerage live inside forty days with Aston VIP?
Trading markets evolve in minutes, not quarters. Delay on the regulatory side cedes market share to nimbler competitors. The Anjouan forex license bridges that gap, providing legal coverage fast, while Aston VIP layers institutional-grade compliance so you scale responsibly.
Book a confidential call to explore timelines, capital scenarios, and banking pathways tailored to your vision. Our senior consultant will map a route from draft term sheet to first trade ticket, showing how offshore agility today transforms into multi-region credibility tomorrow.
