What the rules actually say
The CMA licence, and how to check one
A CMA licence is not a badge — it is a set of conditions, and reading them tells you more than any list of licensees. Kenya's rules cap leverage at 400 times the client's deposit, require the broker to be a Kenyan company with 30 to 50 million shillings of unimpaired capital, and forbid client money from ever being used as the firm's own, including in insolvency.
Checked against each broker's own pages and the regulator's register
The three licence categories, and how many hold each
Kenya licenses online forex directly, in three categories created by Legal Notice 226 of 2017. The counts are from the Authority's own register on the day we checked; the register is live and changes as licences are granted or withdrawn.
| Category | What it permits | Minimum paid-up capital | Holders on the register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-dealing online forex broker | Connecting clients to the market for a commission or a mark-up on the spread — the broker is not the counterparty | 30 million shillings, unimpaired, plus 30 million of liquid capital | 14 |
| Dealing online forex broker | Acting as principal and market maker — the broker takes the other side of the client's trade | 50 million shillings, unimpaired, plus 30 million of liquid capital | 2 |
| Online forex money manager | Trading the market on a client's behalf under a written agreement with a licensed broker | 10 million shillings, plus liquid capital of 5 million or 8% of total liabilities, whichever is higher | 3 |
Capital requirements and permissions from the Capital Markets (Online Foreign Exchange Trading) Regulations, Legal Notice 226 of 2017, read 24 August 2026. Holder counts from the CMA's register at licensees.cma.or.ke on the same date.
The licence caps leverage at 400 times the deposit
Regulation 19(1) is explicit: an online foreign exchange broker may provide leverage “not exceeding four hundred times that of the client's deposit”, and the Authority may revise that ratio by circular to stabilise volatility or protect investors.
Hold that against what the offshore market advertises. Deriv publishes up to 1:1000 on major currency pairs and 1:4000 on one of its derived indices; Tickmill advertises up to 1:1000. A Kenyan-licensed broker could not offer any of that, because the licence does not permit it.
Which makes “CMA-regulated broker with 1:1000 leverage” an impossible object rather than a good find. If a page offers you both, one of the two claims is false — and it is usually the licence.
It also reframes the choice honestly. Choosing a locally licensed broker means accepting a lower ceiling on leverage in exchange for local recourse. That is a real trade, and it is the trade, not a free upgrade.
What happens to your money under the licence
Regulation 23 requires strict segregation: the broker keeps a client account with a bank licensed under Kenya's Banking Act, maintains no co-mingling between its own funds and each individual client's, and — the sentence that matters — client funds may never be used for margining, hedging or as company assets, “including where the company becomes insolvent”.
That last clause is the whole point of a local licence. Offshore, whether client money survives the failure of the firm depends on the law of a jurisdiction you have never dealt with; here it is written into the rules that bind a Kenyan company holding money in a Kenyan bank.
The licence adds professional indemnity insurance for key personnel, daily reconciliations, monthly management accounts and risk-based capital adequacy returns to the Authority — the unglamorous machinery that makes segregation checkable rather than merely promised.
Who can hold one
A company incorporated in Kenya and limited by shares. Not a branch, not a representative office, not an offshore entity with a Nairobi phone number — a Kenyan company, with a chief executive who is fit and proper and has at least five years' experience in buying, selling, managing or dealing in foreign exchange.
This is why global brands that operate here do so through a separate local subsidiary with its own name and its own licence number. The offshore company you would otherwise contract with and the Kenyan company on the register are different legal persons, and only one of them is bound by these rules.
So the question to ask a broker is not “are you regulated by the CMA” but “which company will hold my account, and is that company on the register”. The answers frequently differ.
How to check a licence in two minutes
Open the Authority's register at licensees.cma.or.ke and pick the category — non-dealing online foreign exchange broker, dealing online foreign exchange broker, or online forex money manager. The lists are short: 14, 2 and 3 firms respectively when we checked.
Search for the exact company name from the client agreement rather than the brand on the website. A trading name in quotes on the register — the form the CMA uses for firms trading under a different name — is the link between the two.
If the company is not there, it is not licensed in Kenya. That is not automatically a reason to walk away: none of the nine brokers we track is on the register either, and they are licensed elsewhere. It is a reason to know which regulator you would actually be complaining to.
And if a broker's marketing claims a CMA licence that the register does not show, treat that as the answer to every other question about the firm. Misstating the regulator is not a marketing exaggeration; it is the pattern our page on forex scams describes.
What the licence does not do
It does not make trading safe. The regulations govern capital, conduct, segregation and leverage — not outcomes — and the loss statistics published by regulated brokers elsewhere run from about 69% to 83% of retail accounts.
It does not make a broker better at execution, cheaper on spreads, or faster to pay out. Those are commercial questions, and a locally licensed firm can be worse at all three than an offshore one.
What it does is put the firm, its capital and your money inside Kenyan law, with an authority that investigates investor complaints and can act on a licence when a firm fails to settle one. Whether that is worth a lower leverage ceiling and a shorter list of brokers is a decision, not a formality.
Questions people ask
Which brokers are CMA regulated?
The Authority's register lists them by category — 14 non-dealing brokers, 2 dealing brokers and 3 money managers when we checked on 24 August 2026. None of the nine brokers we track appears there. The register at licensees.cma.or.ke is the only list worth trusting, because it changes.
What leverage can a CMA-licensed broker offer?
No more than 400 times the client's deposit — regulation 19(1) of the 2017 rules, which the Authority may revise by circular. Offshore brokers advertising 1:1000 could not offer that under a Kenyan licence, so a page promising both is describing something that cannot exist.
How much capital does a CMA licence require?
Fifty million shillings of unimpaired paid-up capital for a dealing broker, thirty million for a non-dealing broker and ten million for a money manager, plus liquid capital requirements on top — thirty million for brokers, and five million or 8% of total liabilities for money managers.
Is my money safer with a CMA-licensed broker?
The rules require strict segregation in a bank licensed under Kenya's Banking Act, with client funds never used for margining, hedging or as company assets even if the firm becomes insolvent. That is a real protection against the firm's failure. It is not protection against losing money in the market.
Can a foreign broker hold a CMA licence?
Only through a Kenyan company: the applicant must be incorporated in Kenya and limited by shares, with a chief executive who has at least five years of foreign-exchange experience. That is why global brands appear on the register under separate local company names.
What if a broker claims to be CMA regulated but is not on the register?
Then it is not, and the claim itself is the finding. Check the exact company name from the client agreement against the register before depositing anything — misstating the regulator is a documented scam pattern rather than a marketing flourish.