Central Bank of Ireland

The Central Bank of Ireland (Irish: Banc Ceannais na hÉireann) is Ireland's central bank, and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It is the country's financial services regulator for most categories of financial firms, including forex brokers.  

CBI has strict regulations for forex brokers. The requirements of negative balance protections and leverages are applied, following the guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). To be noted, many forex brokers in Ireland are not approved by the CBI and holds licenses from other EU regulators.

1. Safety of Client Funds：

Investment intermediaries should

(a) keep client assets separate from the investment firm's own assets; and

(b) take all steps as may be necessary to ensure that any client asset is held by it in trust for the benefit of the client on behalf of whom such client asset is being held.

2. Requirement on Forex Brokers' Reports：

Anti-money laundering Reports; Audit Reports; the Programme of Operations; Annual Financial Statements.

Generally speaking, CBI-regulated broker profile will be found at the Registers page on CBI website. Try to find it and check if it will match the info from the broker website.

The detailed steps are as below:

1. Find the name of the forex broker, which you can get from the broker's website; 

2. There are two ways to search for the broker on 

http://registers.centralbank.ie/?utm_medium=website&utm_source=CBI-footer&utm_content=43731 ;

1) Enter the name into the search bar on http://registers.centralbank.ie/FirmSearchPage.aspx ;

2) Search the name in the list of Investment Firms on http://registers.centralbank.ie/DownloadsPage.aspx ;

3. And you'll get the broker's contents on CBI website. You need to check the 'Client Money', 'Business Services' and 'Financial Instruments': check if the broker has the authorization to hold 'Client Money' and provide '9. Financial CFDs' , '(jj) rolling spot F/X' and '2.4. Foreign exchange services';

When you have disputes with a CBI-regulated broker, you can proceed the following ways:

1st way: The recommended way is to contact the broker directly and discuss with them to find a solution.

2nd way: If you're not satisfied with the broker's solution, try to contact Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) in Ireland, which aims at solving the disputes between the forex broker and the investor.

You can either send the complaint to the email:  info@fspo.ie or make an online complaint form and submit it.

Emailed Complaint Form: https://www.fspo.ie/documents/complaint-form-english.pdf?v=7 

Online Complaint Form: https://www.fspo.ie/complaint-form.aspx

3rd way: If the 2 ways above can't solve the dispute, the last way is to issue a case to the court in Ireland.