BEST FOREX BROKERS IN SOUTH AFRICA FOR 2022

Forex Trading In South Africa

As with most countries in Africa, forex trading has seen a significant increase in popularity across South Africa over the past few years.

Forex trading is legal in South Africa and many retail brokers offer their services to the citizens of South Africa. However, in order to offer a full set of services a broker needs to be authorized and regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) – https://www.fsca.co.za/Pages/Default.aspx

If you want to learn more about forex trading and how it works, click here to visit our Beginners Guide to Forex.

Forex Regulation In South Africa

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is the regulatory body for all financial services and activities in South Africa. It was formed in 1990. Nevertheless, many retail brokers offer their services to the residents of South Africa without having a license from the FSCA

However, it is advised to choose a regulated broker with a Tier 1 license like Cysec, FCA, FSCA, or ASIC to make sure your funds are protected.

Who Is FSCA?

The FSCA or Financial Sector Conduct Authority was formed in 1990 and changed its name in 2018, is the sole regulator for all financial services and related activities in South Africa. One of its main goals is to protect the citizens of South Africa from fraud and financial crimes. You can read more about the FSCA here – https://www.fsca.co.za/

Although it is completely legal for South Africans to trade Forex with brokers that are not regulated by the FSCA, a lot of them prefer to trade with brokers that are regulated by their local regulatory body.

FSCA has an objective of improving the integrity and operations of financial markets, and encouraging just client treatment by all types of financial institutions. It also offers financial education and aids in maintaining financial stability. Brokers regulated by FSCA must follow all of the conditions and meet all the requirements, in order to be a highly-regarded brokerage company.

One of the most popular FSCA regulated forex brokers in South Africa is Globex360, an online trading provider in South Africa that was founded in 2017. Other brokers that are working in South Africa include Veracity Markets and CM Trading.

What are the Advantages Of FSCA Regulated Forex Brokers?

Getting this license is considered a major advantage for Forex brokers that want to penetrate the South African market. This is due to the fact that FSCA can provide protection and consultation to the local traders. Obtaining this license is considered a big milestone for brokers that want to dominate in the African Forex market. However, choosing the best-regulated broker to trade with can be difficult as there are so many options available for South African traders.

Another advantage of the FSCA and other financial entities in South Africa is their ability to co-operate with one another without any conflict arising. In Europe and offshore countries, the Financial Regulatory Agency and the National Bank rarely have an amicable relationship.

However, the FSCA and the SARB (South African Reserve Bank) have the ability to coexist, without any issue escalating. The third advantage is the capability of the FSCA to interfere and mediate any conflict that arises between a Forex broker and a client. The FSCA would conduct investigations on the matter and the “winner” of the dispute is found. This aids the client because in certain instances Forex brokers can ignore the complaint.

What Does The FSCA Do?

Similar to other brokers in any other country, Forex brokers in South Africa are regulated by a financial authority; this organization is the Financial Security Conduct Authority or the FSCA.

The FSCA plays an essential role in the general procedure of trading with different currency pairs, which means that the FSCA acts as a supervising body that is authorized to evaluate, monitor, and control all the events that take place in the Forex world. FSCA regulated Forex brokers are considered to be a secure and autonomous agency, which gives traders a sense of security. FSCA regulated Forex brokers make it clear that traders’ personal information and funds are fully regulated and protected with the highest quality of confidentiality.

The FSCA plays a role in various other responsibilities as well, and because of the high demand in their workload, they have about four-hundred employees that are based in their headquarters branch in Pretoria, South Africa.

The autonomy of the FSCA is one of its highly-regarded features, and the fact that they are not funded by the government gained them high respect in the financial world. FSCA regulated Forex brokers had to pay a fee to achieve the seal of approval from the financial authority figure since this permit is not easy to access; there are many high-demand procedures and investigations that are included in the approval process.

The current legal framework for the FSCA lies in the Financial Intelligence Act from 2004 and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act from 2004, which authorizes them to gain control of the Forex market when necessary.  In simple terms, the FSCA regulated Forex brokers in South Africa are licensed by a financial entity that supervises all financial assets in the Forex market, with the sole purpose of protecting every investor and their funds. The FSCA monitors and controls brokerage firms, through instruments such as penalties of different kinds and in necessary circumstances, bans.

FSB Or FSCA?

The Financial Security Conduct Authority was formerly known as the Financial Services Board (FSB), and now it transformed into the FSCA. This change took place on April 1st of 2018. The Financial Sector Regulation Act of 2017 consists of a particular model for financial sector regulation, known as the Twin Peaks model. All of the aforementioned information means that the Financial Services Boards that regulated Forex companies are now Financial Security Conduct Authority (FSCA) regulated Forex brokers.

There are very particular duties that the FSCA handle regarding brokers and the Forex world; these tasks include the safety of financial clients, by means of just treatment and support, the endorsement of financial literacy, providing any necessary assistance in the stability and maintenance of the financial entities, the improvement of efficiency and goodwill in financial markets, and the endorsement of policy aims for renovating the financial sector with financial enclosure.

The South African government appears to be developing gradually and being implemented over the course of the year. There have been no issues with the financial firms at the moment, because of the unambiguous and deliberate objective. The FSCA is currently performing all kinds of different tasks: such as communications, regulatory actions, and any financial decisions. The FSCA has established a new Financial Sector Tribunal, where they are an open entity that can be approached without the approval of the FSCA.

How Can Traders Make Use Of The FSCA?

There are several methods by that a trader can operate the services of the FSCA, but only one method is most common for Forex traders. The most common method for Forex traders is checking the validity of a Forex brokerage firm in South Africa, which means that traders can access the regulatory agency’s records and track whether the broker is regulated by the agency.

In some circumstances, the brokerage firms may be listed, but they may not hold the license anymore. This means that it would be better to ensure with the regulator to guarantee that traders are not going to regret it.