In this article, I am going to review CMA regulated forex brokers in Kenya. In recent days several offshore brokers have opened offices in Nairobi after being given a license by Capital Market Authority.
What is Capital Markets Authority (CMA)?
Capital Market Authority (CMA) is an independent regulatory body in Kenya responsible for monitoring, controlling, and giving licenses for financial activities in the country. It regulates various financial sectors by giving guidelines for asset allocation
Since this is a very long and detailed guide, please use the navigation below to get to the appropriate section.
1. HotForex
HotForex is one of the leading forex brokers globally and it has been in business for over 10 years. The company has over 2,500,000 live trading accounts and more than 200 employees globally. It acquired a license from the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) of Kenya in December 2021.
The HotForex trading platform offers a lot of innovative trading tools such as the social trading feature (HFCopy) and Autochartist.
With HotForex’s HFCopy feature, you can follow and copy trades of successful forex traders who are on the platform.
The account type will still let you deposit and withdraw money using Mpesa, and you get the benefit of increased profitability by simply emulating successful traders on the platform. Click here to open an HFCopy account Now.
The process of depositing money into your HotForex account using Mpesa is as straightforward as it gets. You can have a look at a comprehensive review of HotForex.
2. Windsor Markets
Exness is one of the other forex brokers that have a wide client base in Kenya, partly because it was among the fast brokers to accept M-Pesa. The broker has been serving traders since 2008. Instant trade executions and unlimited Leverage on MT4 accounts make this forex broker one of the best for retail traders.
Exness offers four different account types that cater to every type of trader:-
- In any case you do not have trading experience and you’d like an account to learn and practice trading, the Standard Cent Account with a minimum deposit of $1 and staggering unlimited leverage comes highly recommended.
- Exness offers a social trading platform that allows you to copy successful forex traders. This is for If those who don’t have the necessary mastery to trade profitably but still desire to make money from trading,
- If you want to trade for a decent profit that you can live off, the Pro Account with a minimum deposit of $200 and a maximum spread of $200 is what you’d want.
- For traders whose only goal is to milk the market, the Raw and Zero account types are the way to go. These account types charge commissions to trade. If you trade heavily, this is the way to go.
If you like to learn more about Exness with a full review.
3. FXPesa
FXPesa was the first broker to be regulated in Kenya in 2018 by Capital Markets Authority as a non-dealing online forex broker. The broker opened the first office in Africa in Nairobi Kenya and later other satellite offices in Kenya in places like Kitengela, Mombasa, Nakuru, and Eldoret.
FXPesa offers multiple deposit and withdrawal channels including mobile payment channels such as M-Pesa, Equitel, PesaLink, and AirtelMoney.
EGM Securities is the company behind FXPesa. They rebranded the trading platform to FXPesa which offers a trading platform for Forex and CFDs.
The company has since established a fully resourced staff complement of qualified and experienced professionals across various disciplines including compliance, finance, operations, IT in Nairobi, Kenya.
To start trading in EGM you need to deposit at least $100 depending on if you want to start trading with an executive or a premium account.
Unlike its international competitors spreads in EGM are high at 1.6 with a maximum leverage of 1:400. EGM supports MT4 and its android app for trading. We have both the EGM Securities review which is the parent company and the FXPesa review for you to understand more about it.
4. Scope Markets
Scope Markets is a global online trading broker, offering both leveraged and investment products that cover forex, commodities, shares, and indices. The broker is operated by Scope Markets Limited which was previously called SM-Invest but rebranded on 27th September 2021.
It supports both short-term and long-term trading strategies, with leveraged derivatives and spot investment products. Clients can access 44 forex pairs and 19 CFDs on commodities, stocks, and indices. The broker also offers 200 ETFs and stock investment products.
Scope Markets offers five account types, that are standard account, gold account, platinum account, investment account, and Elective Professional Client Account
5. Exinity
Exinity East Africa Limited is a part of Exinity Group, which also runs the established FXTM and Alpari Group brokerage firms. It offers MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) trading terminal options
Exinity offers assets such as Indices, Stocks, Forex, and Commodities.
6. Pepperstone
Pepperstone is one of the most trusted brokers. The brokerage has a mission to connect small brokers to each other with an interbank network when trades are exchanged. To do that, Pepperstone cooperates with 22 leading banks that provide liquidity in the world. The result is amazing. Forex traders with the broker can directly watch the depth of live markets. This is one of the benefits of trading with Pepperstone that can be rarely found in other brokers.
Despite that feature, Pepperstone also provides a wide range of other features and research tools.
Pepperstone allows the trading of multiple financial assets as well as a good selection of payment methods for deposits and withdrawals.
Currently, traders with Pepperstone trade various items, not only Forex but also gold, energy commodity, soft commodity, and cryptocurrencies.
Pepperstone offers different payment and withdrawal methods they include Bank Wire, Credit Card, Neteller, WebMoney, PayPal, and M-Pesa.
Pepperstone offers 4 different account types, that is Edge Standard, Edge Razor, Edge Swap-Free, and Edge Active Traders.
Each of the accounts has its own pros and cons for its users. The availability of 4 different accounts helps users in finding a platform that is best suited for them. Additionally, it is easy to register with Pepperstone.
Why Choose CMA Regulated forex brokers
There are several advantages when trading with a CMA regulated forex brokers in Kenya.
But safety is the main reason. In case a broker goes bankrupt like it did happen for some in the 2015 Swiss franc shock you will be compensated by Central of Kenya.
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Modern trading and investment activities like Forex are under the regulation of the CMA. With the CMA regulation, you and the company you are dealing with must comply with CMA rulings. This lowers trading risks, including being the victim of a fraud or scam. Although it sounds beneficial even for the brokers to be under the regulation of CMA, many brokers in Kenya are not interested in it.
Some Kenyan brokers find that some points are only profitable for traders, not brokers. Therefore, they don’t register their businesses with CMA, which is considered illegal. It is not exaggerating to say that the traders must be careful in choosing the broker, as only a few brokers meet the standard of CMA.
Conclusion
Some of our readers have been asking which broker would I recommend. I highly recommend that you use FXPesa because the spreads are minimal and they have the best customer support.
I hope this article helped you to highlight CMA regulated forex brokers in Kenya. We will keep updating once any new broker gets regulated since some other brokers as XM and FP Markets are in the process of getting the license. Finally, don’t forget to leave a comment below.
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Vincent Nyagaka is a Professional Trader, Investor, and Author. He has built an 8-figure solid business around Forex, Stocks. He was recognized as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by the United Nations. His work is featured in top publications like Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., FoxBusiness, and more.
