FSP
Updated:
FSP is a licence category in South Africa and New Zealand, not a regulator — and on its own it does not authorise market-making. The brokers below hold an FSP number.
Brokers regulated by FSP
Plus500Read review- Regulated by the FCA
- Also licensed by CySEC and ASIC
Blackwell GlobalRead review- No specific advantages are listed for this broker.
PF DerivativesRead review- No specific advantages identified from available information
FSP stands for Financial Service Provider. It is a licence category, not a regulator, and it appears on broker pages in two quite different national contexts.
South Africa
An FSP licence is issued by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority under the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, and it permits advice and intermediary services. It is the licence most brokers serving South African clients hold, and every one has an FSP number.
What it does not by itself authorise is market-making in leveraged currency contracts. That requires a separate Over-the-Counter Derivative Provider licence, introduced in 2018 under the Financial Markets Act, which brings trade reporting to a licensed repository and regulatory capital against the firm's book.
The practical consequence is worth stating plainly: a firm listed only as an FSP may legally arrange your trade with someone else while being supervised on advice rather than on the pricing you receive. Check whether the ODP licence is held as well.
New Zealand
The Financial Service Providers Register lists firms meeting basic criteria, and an FSP number there carries even less weight — it involves no supervision at all. The licence that matters in New Zealand is the Financial Markets Authority's derivatives issuer licence, which brings statutory trust segregation of client money.
Offshore brokers spent years advertising FSPR registration as though it were regulation. The FMA now has the power to deregister firms with no genuine local connection and has used it repeatedly.
What an FSP number tells you
That the firm is on a register. Whether it is supervised, on what, and whether it may act as your counterparty are separate questions answered by the licence category rather than by the number.
How to check
South Africa: search the FSCA register by FSP number, confirm the entity name and the categories held, and look for the ODP licence. New Zealand: check the FMA's licensed derivatives issuers list rather than the FSPR. ProForexBrokers.com reads the category rather than the number, because the number exists either way.