FSC Mauritius, as it actually supervises.

What the FSC is

The FSC was established by the Financial Services Act 2007 as the integrated regulator of the non-bank financial-services sector in Mauritius. It supervises insurance, capital markets, pensions, global business companies, investment dealers (the relevant category for retail FX/CFD brokers), and a range of other non-bank financial activities. The Mauritian central bank — the Bank of Mauritius — handles banking supervision separately.

The relevant licence for a retail FX/CFD broker is the Investment Dealer (Full Service Dealer) licence under section 29 of the Securities Act 2005. The licence permits dealing in securities on behalf of clients and on own account; it does not, on its face, permit banking activity.

What the FSC supervises substantively

Four areas where FSC Mauritius supervision is materially real, by international comparison:

• Fitness-and-propriety vetting of officers and shareholders at the licensing stage. The FSC runs material background checks on principal officers and direct/indirect shareholders, comparable to mid- tier EU regulators.
• Capital requirements. The Investment Dealer (Full Service) licence carries a minimum capital of MUR 1 million plus additional risk-based add-ons, with regular reporting of capital adequacy. Below FCA/BaFin levels, but not nominal.
• AML/CFT supervision. Mauritius is a FATF-member jurisdiction; the FSC operates a substantial AML supervisory programme that includes on-site examinations. The country's history of FATF grey-listing (2020–2021, since cleared) raised the bar materially on AML enforcement during and after that period.
• Periodic audited financial statements are required and publicly searchable through the FSC's registry system.

Where FSC supervision is more modest

• Conduct-of-business rules for retail clients. FSC rules are less prescriptive than ESMA's product- intervention framework or the FCA's CASS/COBS regimes. Leverage caps, negative-balance protection, bonus restrictions, and mandatory risk-warning text exist but are not as deeply integrated into the conduct regime as in the EU/UK.
• Investor compensation. Mauritius has no statutory investor-compensation scheme equivalent to FSCS (UK), ICF (Cyprus), or SIPC (US). Client segregation rules exist; they do not provide pooled payout in the event of broker insolvency.
• Enforcement publication transparency. The FSC publishes fewer enforcement notices than FCA/CySEC, partly because of a lower public-naming threshold and partly because the volume of actionable matters is smaller.
• Resourcing scale. The FSC supervises several hundred Investment Dealers and a much wider non-bank financial-services population with a staff count that is necessarily smaller than the FCA's or BaFin's.

Why Tier 2 and not Tier 3

The Beacon places FSC Mauritius at Tier 2 (alongside DFSA Dubai, MFSA Malta, CSSF Luxembourg, ASIC, MAS, SFC, KNF, CNMV) rather than Tier 3 (FSA Seychelles, FSC-BVI, FSCA South Africa, VFSC Vanuatu) for three reasons:

1. The licensing process is substantive. The FSC has refused or revoked licences on grounds that would read recognisable in any reputable jurisdiction.
2. AML supervision is real, particularly after the FATF grey-listing experience.
3. Capital and audit requirements are above the minimum-fee-registration tier of pure offshore jurisdictions.

But not Tier 1, because conduct-of-business rules for retail clients, public enforcement transparency, and investor compensation arrangements remain meaningfully below the standard set by FCA, BaFin, FINMA or the US regulators.

What this means for a client

An FSC Mauritius licence is a real authorisation. A broker holding one has been through a substantive process and is subject to ongoing supervisory obligations. The licence is meaningfully different from an SVG or Belize registration.

It is also different from an FCA or BaFin licence. The MiFID-II conduct framework — segregated client money with daily reconciliation, the investor compensation schemes, the leverage caps and bonus prohibitions, the published-rule conduct standards — is not in force under FSC Mauritius authorisation. A client who would like the protections of MiFID-II conduct rules should choose an EU-authorised entity, even where the same broker offers both.

Notable firms holding FSC-Mauritius licences

Among the brokers in The Beacon's entities directory, FSC Mauritius is held by (non-exhaustive list):

• Interactive Brokers (one of several authorisations across multiple jurisdictions)
• Swissquote (subsidiary in Mauritius alongside the Swiss banking entity)
• HotForex / HFM (one of the group's main retail- onboarding entities)
• ThinkMarkets (Mauritius arm)
• Hantec Markets (Mauritius arm)

In each case the dossier records the full licence list with tier markings; readers can see which authorisation their account would sit under.

Methodology and corrections

This page is based on the FSC's own published rules, the Securities Act 2005 and Financial Services Act 2007, and Mauritius's FATF mutual-evaluation reports. Corrections through info@enon.md.