Dealing in CFDs requires its own separate registration

A firm holding a Bahamian securities registration is not automatically permitted to offer CFDs, so it is worth confirming that the CFD activity itself is covered rather than accepting a general registration number. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

CFD registration costs $5,000 to apply and $45,000 a year

These are the standing costs a CFD broker carries to keep its Bahamian registration, which is a concrete measure of what the licence is worth to the firm and what it stands to lose if the registration is withdrawn. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/SIA-Fees-Rules-2024.pdf

Retail CFD margin is at least 0.5% of the exposure

A 0.5% floor means a retail position can be up to 200 times the cash posted, so a Bahamian CFD account can be far more leveraged than one opened under regimes that cap major currency pairs at 3.33%. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

Retail CFD losses are capped at the funds in the account

A retail client trading CFDs with a registered Bahamian firm cannot be pursued for more than the money in the trading account, which is the single most useful protection in the CFD rules. It applies to retail clients only. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

Complaints must be in writing on the Commission's form

A phone call will not start anything. The written form with the trade records attached is what gets a matter in front of the Enforcement Department, and the page sets out no time limit for filing. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/complaints/

Retail margin must be cash and must be segregated

Segregation is what keeps a retail client's margin separate from the firm's own money, and the cash-only rule means securities or other assets cannot be pledged to hold a leveraged position open. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

Positions close out at 50% of the required margin

This sets the point at which a Bahamian CFD firm has to close a retail position rather than let it run further into loss, and it is the number to compare against the close-out level written into an account agreement. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

Professional client status removes the margin floor

Agreeing to be reclassified as a professional client removes the 0.5% margin floor and the other retail protections. The written warning is the document to read before signing anything that changes client category. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

Risk warnings must carry the firm's own loss percentage

That percentage is a broker-specific statistic published by the broker itself under a rule, so it can be compared directly across firms rather than taken from marketing material. Source: https://scb.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Securities-Industry-Contracts-for-Differences-Rules-2020.pdf

Offshore

SCBThe Securities Commission of The Bahamas

The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) regulates securities firms, investment funds, financial and corporate service providers, and digital assets, and it registers firms that deal in contracts for differences under a dedicated set of rules. A CFD registration costs $5,000.00 to apply, $20,000.00 on registration and $45,000.00 a year, and it carries retail protections written into the rules: a minimum margin of 0.5% of exposure, close-out at 50% of that margin, cash-only and segregated retail margin, and liability limited to the funds in the account. There is no live register search: the Commission publishes registrant and licensee lists as documents grouped by legislation, and asks the public to contact it for more current information. Complaints go to the Commission in writing on its own form, and it publishes notices naming entities that are not registered with it.

About The Securities Commission of The Bahamas

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas was established in 1995 by the Securities Board Act, 1995, which has since been repealed and replaced with new legislation. The functions of the Commission are prescribed in the Securities Industry Act, 2011 (SIA, 2011), as well as under the Investment Funds Act, 2003 (IFA), which authorizes the SCB to monitor and regulate investment funds, securities, and other capital markets transactions throughout the Bahamas.

In 2008, the SCB was appointed as the Inspector of Financial and Corporate Services that sought to provide it with supervisory and regulatory responsibility for the oversight of the Financial and Corporate Services Act, 2000. Over the years, the Commission has expanded its regulatory scope and continues to operate on the principles of openness, stability, and investor protection.

Regulatory Role and Oversight

About and how to use The Securities Commission of The Bahamas

How to verify a licence

Start at the Commission's Registrant Licensee Status Search page, https://scb.gov.bs/registrant-licensee-search/. There is no name-search box: the page publishes separate listings grouped by legislation, one for firms registered under the Securities Industry Act, 2024, two for investment fund administrators and funds under the Investment Funds Act, 2019, two for licensees and money lenders under the Financial and Corporate Service Providers Act, 2020, and one for registrants under the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges Act, 2024. Open the listing that matches the business the firm says it does, and look for the firm's exact legal name. The page itself tells readers to contact the Commission at info@scb.gov.bs or 242-397-4100 for more current information, and the Commission's own public notice tells the public to consult the listing first and, if the entity is not there, to email the Supervision Department at sud@scb.gov.bs or telephone 397-4100. Check the address bar as well: the Commission has published a notice stating that its correct official website is https://www.scb.gov.bs and that other sites have copied its content.

How to complain

The Commission's complaints page asks a client to try to resolve the matter with the registered firm first. To bring it to the Commission, download the Complaint Submission Form and send the completed form and attachments to ecomplaints@scb.gov.bs. Complaints can also arrive by fax or post to Poinciana House, North Building, 2nd Floor, 31A East Bay Street, Nassau, by telephone on (242) 397-4100, or in person, but the page states that all complaints must be in writing before the Commission will proceed with an investigation. The page sets out no time limit for filing, and it states that investigations are confidential, that staff cannot give legal advice, and that a complainant should not expect an update on the status of a complaint. Where the Commission does open an investigation, its Enforcement Department contacts the complainant for further information.

Jurisdiction and scope

The CFD rules bite on activity carried on in or from The Bahamas: any person who carries on securities business in, or otherwise provides or markets, CFDs in or from The Bahamas must be registered for that activity with the Commission. A registered CFD firm cannot satisfy its physical presence obligation by appointing a managing representative; it must meet the requirements in the Schedule to the Securities Industry (Physical Presence) Rules. The CFD supervisory officer must be an individual residing in The Bahamas and registered with the Commission. The Commission's remit covers investment funds, securities, financial and corporate service providers, digital assets and registered exchanges, carbon credit trading, and the capital markets in The Bahamas.

What is protected

Protection for a retail CFD client sits in the conduct rules rather than in a payout fund. Margin posted by a retail client must be in cash, must be segregated in accordance with regulation 88(2) of the Securities Industry Regulations, and may not be borrowed, charged or used by the firm for any other purpose. The liability of a retail client for all CFDs connected to the account is limited to the funds in that account, and the firm must close open positions when net equity falls below 50% of the margin requirement. These protections attach to retail clients only: the minimum margin requirements do not apply to professional clients, and a firm moving a client to elective professional status must give a clear written warning of the protections and investor compensation rights the client may lose. I did not find a document on the Commission's site establishing an investor compensation or guarantee scheme, so no cap or exclusion list is stated here.

Using this regulator

Match the firm's exact legal name against the listing for the Act it claims to be registered under, and treat a certificate image or a claim on a website as something to check rather than as proof. A firm dealing in CFDs with Bahamian retail clients should be on the Securities Industry Act listing and should display a risk warning carrying its own percentage of retail accounts that lost money, recalculated every three months. Ask whether you are being treated as a retail or a professional client: the margin floor, the close-out level and the written warnings all depend on that classification. Keep the trade confirmations and account statements, since a written complaint on the Commission's form is what starts an investigation. Finally, check the Investor Alerts and Notices page, where the Commission names entities that are not registered with it and websites that imitate its own.

Good to know

Eight documents in the supplied corpus carried no extractable text (including the Securities Industry (Disciplinary Proceedings)(Hearings and Settlements) Rules and several anti-money-laundering rules), and the archived prior copies could not be retrieved, so nothing is quoted from them. In the Securities Industry (Fees) Rules, 2024 the pages carrying Table A and the Table B column headings carry no extractable text; the three CFD figures are quoted as they appear in the row, and the column order (application, registration, annual renewal) is the order used by the individual fee table on the following page of the same document. The Securities Industry Act, 2024, the Investment Funds (Fees) Rules, 2024 and the registrant listing documents also carry no extractable text, so no clause or figure is quoted from them. I did not find a document establishing an investor compensation scheme or a client-money guarantee fund, so no compensation cap or exclusion is reported. The complaints page states no deadline for filing a complaint.

Key insights and tips

Check a firm against the Commission's own registrant listings

Key

A broker's claim to be regulated in The Bahamas can be settled in a few minutes against the Commission's own listing, and the Commission gives a named email address for the case where the firm does not appear.

The Commission tells the public to consult its publicly available listing before dealing with any entity that claims to be authorised or regulated by it, and to email the Supervision Department at sud@scb.gov.bs or telephone 397-4100 if the entity is not listed. Its investor booklet points readers to www.scb.gov.bs to verify that an individual or a product is registered.

Before engaging in business with any entity who claims or purports to be authorized and/or regulated by the Commission, you are advised to consult, in the first instance, the publicly available listing.

Quoted in Public Notice No. 1 of 2026: Entities Not Regulated by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, p.2Read the source

If the entity in question is not listed there, please contact the Supervision Department to confirm whether it is registered or licensed with the Commission at sud@scb.gov.bs or by telephone at 397-4100.

Quoted in Public Notice No. 1 of 2026: Entities Not Regulated by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, p.2

Official documents examined

RulebookFinancial and Corporate Service Providers Act (Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism) Rules, 2019
Fetched Aug 30, 2026View source
RulebookInvestment Funds Act (SMART Fund) Rules, 2012 [SFM 007]
Fetched Aug 30, 2026View source
RulebookSecurities Industry (Anti Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism) (Amendment) Rules, 2019
Fetched Aug 30, 2026View source
RulebookSecurities Industry (Compliance Officer) Rules, 2019

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About this information

The details on this page about The Securities Commission of The Bahamas were compiled from the regulator’s own official documents, its website and other public sources, and are presented as neutral, factual guidance.

If you believe something here is inaccurate, or you spot a critical problem, please let us know via Contact us.

SCBThe Securities Commission of The Bahamas

About The Securities Commission of The Bahamas

Regulatory Role and Oversight