Caucasus & Central Asia forex broker regulation audit 2026
By CaspianFX Editorial·
Last updated 23 June 2026 ·Methodology
All 15 major forex brokers serving the Caucasus and Central Asia in this
audit hold at least one Tier-1 regulatory licence, and all 11 offer a
swap-free account. 4 also hold a strict-tier DFSA licence among their
regulators. Yet across 3 markets, local retail forex is licensed in only
1; most residents trade via offshore brokers.
What this study is — and what it is not
This is a compiled, cross-checked audit of the regulatory and account facts behind the
15 brokers we cover (Exness, XM, FBS, IC Markets, Pepperstone, FP Markets, Octa, AvaTrade, CMC Markets, IG Markets, OANDA, Admirals, Capital.com, Alpari, HFM (HotForex)) and the
3 markets we serve. The original value here is not an invented score:
it is the structured aggregation of facts that are individually public but rarely assembled
in one verifiable place — every licence, its jurisdiction and status; whether a genuine
swap-free account exists; the supported platforms; the founding year; and, per country, the
regulator and the honest local trading status. The full dataset is downloadable below.
In keeping with our methodology, we publish no star ratings, no
“typical” spreads and no minimum-deposit figures. Those require an independent
hands-on test we have not completed, so in the dataset they are explicitly null. Everything
we do report traces to a regulator's own register or the broker's own disclosure.
The master comparison: broker × licence × swap-free × platforms
All 14 of the 15 brokers in this audit hold at least one
licence from a Tier-1 regulator — the strict, well-resourced authorities we define on our
methodology page as FCA, ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, FSCA. This matters because a Tier-1 licence
typically brings client-money segregation, conduct rules and a complaints route. The
distinct regulators observed across the whole set are
ADGM, ASIC, CBI, CFTC, CySEC, DFSA, EFSA, FCA, FSA, FSC, FSCA, IFSC, MAS. A Tier-1 licence held by the group does not
automatically protect your account, though: protections attach to the specific
entity that opens it, which is why every reader should still confirm the entity that serves
their country on the regulator's register.
Finding 2 — 4 hold a strict-tier DFSA licence
4 of the 15 brokers — Pepperstone and FP Markets and IG Markets and HFM (HotForex) — hold a
Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) licence. We count DFSA as one of several
strict-tier regulators in this audit; it is not a local licence for any of our markets, so
for a resident of Georgia, Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan it is simply one more strong supervisory
signal among the broker's licences — never a substitute for verifying the specific entity
that serves your country.
Finding 3 — all brokers offer a swap-free account
All 11 brokers expose a swap-free account, meaning such an account type
exists at each. A swap-free account is a factual product feature — no overnight
swap charge — and the dataset records availability only. We have not audited each account's
fee mechanics line by line, so whether a swap-free account suits you turns on the broker's
specific terms — the replacement or admin fees, eligible instruments and any holding-period
limit — which is exactly what our
guide to choosing a regulated broker
tells a reader to check.
Finding 4 — track record spans 42 years
The brokers in this audit were founded between 1974 and
2016, so each has operated for well over a decade — a length of regulated
track record that is itself a safety signal, though never a guarantee. Platform coverage is
consistent: every broker offers both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, and several also offer
cTrader and TradingView, as the master table above shows.
Finding 5 — the honest regulatory map across 3 markets
The most important finding for readers is the gap between broker regulation and
local regulation. Across the 3 markets we cover, local
retail forex is licensed in only 1 (Georgia).
In the remaining 2 — Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan —
local retail forex is offshore-only or a grey area, so residents who trade do so
through internationally regulated (offshore) brokers at their own risk. Trading itself is
legal for residents in all three markets; we report this status plainly on each country page
rather than making a blanket “forex is locally supervised” claim.
The complete audit — every licence, jurisdiction and status, swap-free availability,
platforms, founded year and per-market regulatory data — as machine-readable files.
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Ratings, spreads and minimum deposits are
intentionally omitted (null) per our honest-null policy.
This audit is a snapshot. Regulatory status changes, brokers gain and lose licences, and
account terms move — so verify any specific licence on the regulator's own register before
you act on it, and check our methodology's update cadence. The dataset deliberately contains
no ratings, spreads or minimum deposits: those are not findings we have independently
tested, and we will not present them as if they were. Swap-free is recorded as
available / not available only. Finally,
the “markets served” field is empty for brokers whose affiliate programmes we
have not yet joined and confirmed allowed-geo for — we report that honestly rather than
guess. For how each figure was sourced and verified, read the
methodology in full.
Per-market authorities (NBG, AFSA / ARDFM, CBAR) — linked in the per-market table above.
CaspianFX is an independent editorial desk for resident traders in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan — markets where no strong local retail forex regime exists and offshore licensing is the practical reality. We verify every licence against the issuing authority's register, state candidly what that offshore regulation does and does not protect, and cover the funding and withdrawal routes that actually work for lari, tenge and manat. No payment is accepted for coverage.