The Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Seychelles issues the Securities Dealer Licence under the Securities Act 2007 (Act 8 of 2007). It is the licence sold under the colloquial label “Seychelles forex license”; the same authorisation covers spot foreign exchange, contracts for difference, commodities-as-derivatives, and conventional securities dealing. After the Securities (Amendment) Act 2024, paid-up capital was raised to USD 100,000 and qualifying-ownership disclosure was tightened to align the regime with IOSCO baseline expectations.

For an acquirer this matters in two ways. The recapitalisation requirement closed a long-standing arbitrage against lower-tier offshore regimes (Anjouan, SVG), so the licences trading hands today are post-amendment-compliant and harder to disqualify on capital grounds. And the conduct-of-business amendments made qualifying-ownership succession an FSA-supervised process, meaning the change-of-control file is a meaningful diligence asset, not a formality.

Seychelles is the offshore forex jurisdiction acquirers shortlist when they need a real regulator’s name on the licence (the FSA reports to the IMF on AML matters and sits on the GIFCS), without the capital, conduct, and infrastructure burden of Cyprus or Mauritius. The two best-known peers (Bahamas and Mauritius) have moved upmarket; Seychelles stayed proportionate.

The SDL authorises a Seychelles-incorporated company to deal in securities, defined under the Securities Act 2007 to include shares, bonds, derivatives, contracts for difference, options, futures, and units in collective investment schemes. In practice the bulk of the licence book operates as retail and professional CFD-on-FX brokers serving clients in Africa, the GCC, South-East Asia, and Latin America. Some holders extend into proprietary trading; a smaller subset adds securities-as-investment-advisory under the same licence.

Paid-up capital is USD 100,000 post-2024, held in a bank licensed under the Financial Institutions Act 2004 or in a jurisdiction approved by the FSA. Where the FSA views the business model as higher-risk (high client margin, large managed-account book, novel product), it can require capital to USD 250,000 or more as a condition of licensing. Conduct-of-business rules require segregation of client money, IOSCO-aligned risk disclosure, and a written compliance and AML/CFT programme.

Change of control is the part of the regime acquirers underestimate. Any transfer of qualifying ownership requires FSA approval: fit-and-proper questionnaires on the incoming shareholders and directors, source-of-funds evidence, a post-acquisition business plan, and confirmation that the AML/CFT programme will be maintained without interruption. Straightforward files typically clear in four to eight weeks. A clean target with the post-amendment capital already paid up, an in-place compliance officer, and a current banking relationship is the version of the deal that closes on the short timeline; most do not.

Brief, shortlist, diligence, structure, close. We run a short discovery call to capture your acquirer profile and capital envelope, return a confidential shortlist of pre-vetted Seychelles SDL targets within days, coordinate the legal and regulatory diligence with your counsel, and structure the FSA change-of-control filing for expedited approval. The full process is described on the process section of the homepage; the country-specific reference data lives on this page and on our coverage hub.