Atlantic Securities licences

As a Cyprus Investment Firm the company publishes a clients' money policy and an investors compensation fund policy, and it charges clients an annual investors compensation fund contribution of 0.10% of the highest month-end portfolio value of the previous year, capped at EUR 20 a year. Compensation schemes cover firm failure, not trading losses, and no scheme removes market risk.

The local account gives direct access to the Cyprus Stock Exchange and the Athens Exchange, where Atlantic Securities Ltd is a member. The global account gives access to international exchanges, and the company states plainly that it acts as an introducing broker on that route, so the account itself is opened with Interactive Brokers and the published international fees combine both firms' charges.

Account opening is document based rather than online. The application forms are downloaded, completed and signed, with the signature certified by a certifying officer in Cyprus or a certifying authority in the client's country of residence, and returned with original proof of identity and a utility bill no more than six months old showing the full name and permanent address. A post office box is not accepted. The firm states the trading account is ready within one to three business days.

Withdrawals are made to a bank account in the client's own name. The client signs a payment request naming the bank and the IBAN, attaches an IBAN certificate and identification, and the funds are transferred by the banking system. The published charge is EUR 3 per request.

For the Cyprus and Athens exchanges the firm publishes a web based trading platform, a desktop order entry application and a separate account management tool that cannot be used for trading. For international markets clients use the global trading platform and client portal that come with the introducing relationship described below. The common third party retail foreign exchange terminals are not offered.

On the Cyprus Stock Exchange, from 0.4% of trade value plus 30 cents per trade, with exchange and depository fees of 0.04% and a quarterly depository charge. On the Athens Exchange, from 0.4% plus 25 cents per trade with 0.0325% exchange and depository fees. Internationally, 0.20% on euro stocks with a 5 EUR minimum per executed order, 2 cents per share on US stocks with a 5 USD minimum, 10 per contract on futures and options and 0.20% on bonds, all capped at 1% of trade value. Custody is 0.12% a year.

No maximum leverage figure is published anywhere on the company's site. The licence does include granting credits or loans where the firm granting the credit is involved in the transaction, which is the permission that underlies margin lending, but the terms of any such facility are not stated publicly.

No minimum deposit is published on the company's site for either the local markets account or the global account. What is published is an account opening fee of EUR 30 for a natural person, EUR 70 for a company established in Cyprus and EUR 100 for a company established abroad.

Not as a leveraged retail product. The business is exchange traded securities brokerage. The licence includes foreign exchange services only where they are connected to the provision of investment services, for example converting currency to settle a foreign share purchase, and the international fee schedule prices foreign exchange at 0.01% with a 3 EUR minimum per executed order. A trader looking for leveraged currency or contracts for difference dealing should look elsewhere.

Nothing found in this review supports that. The brand, the operating company, the registered address and the licence holder are one and the same entity, the Cyprus registration is confirmed as active on an authoritative record, and the firm has operated continuously for more than twenty years. That is the opposite profile to a short lived or anonymous operation.

The operating company is Atlantic Securities Ltd, registered in Cyprus under number HE119857 and incorporated on 17 April 2001. The firm states on its own site that it is a subsidiary of Atlantic Insurance Co. Public Ltd, a company listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange. Its registered office is 37 Prodromou Street, 1090 Nicosia.