Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) is the primary regulator overseeing the Irish financial sector. It has set a number of requirements to forex brokers authorized to operating in the country. These include record keeping, transparent pricing, minimum capital adequacy, segregated client accounts, minimum competency requirements, and more.
CBI keeps a
register of regulated companies and anyone can check whether a certain forex broker is licensed or not. Besides, the CBI publishes Investment Firms Q&A, as well as updates to it.
In March 2017 the Irish watchdog proposed a couple of restrictive measures to financial service providers to limit the losses of their clients, as according to its own surveys, 74% of retail investors lost significant amounts of money over 2015 and 2016 (an average of €2,700).
Measures proposed by the Central Bank of Ireland include Introducing negative balance protection, a maximum leverage limit of 1:25 and prohibiting bonuses and other promotions. These measures are consistent with ESMA’s guidelines and with restrictions imposed by other European regulators.
Most brokers operating in Ireland are not licensed by the CBI, but are instead regulated in another EU member state and provide financial and investment services under the MiFID passporting rules.