Retail broker CFI announced on Monday that it has received regulatory approval to operate in Bahrain.
Data from the country’s central bank, which acts as the regulatory authority in the country, shows that CFI set up an entity in Bahrain back in July.
The broker has a Category 2 license in the country to operate as a Investment Busines.
What is striking about that license is that it does not allow the holder to facilitate trades as principle.
Consequently, it is not clear how you could use the license to offer CFDs to clients directly or whether you could facilitate trades on a matched-principle basis.
It’s also plausible the entity could be used as something akin to an introducer for another CFI entity. However, there are limitations here on what the broker could do, meaning it’s unclear to us how CFI will actually use their entity in Bahrain.
CFI recently had its license in Oman cancelled by the local regulator. One of the reasons for that was the firm was marketing non-Omai securities without approval to do so.
In practice, this was almost certainly CFDs being offered as principle by one of the firm’s other entities. Let’s see what happens in Bahrain.
CFI has been very active in acquiring more niche licenses over the last few years. The firm has approvals in Azerbaijan, Palestine, Egypt, and Colombia, for example.
In Bahrain, it appears to be the only CFD provider with a license in the country.
