The Direct Answer
FP Markets holds a genuine local licence in Kenya: CMA (Capital Markets Authority) Non-Dealing Online Foreign Exchange Broker licence No. 103, granted in late 2023. That's not an offshore registration dressed up as local approval. The Capital Markets Authority governs online forex under the Capital Markets (Online Foreign Exchange Trading) Regulations, 2017, and a non-dealing licence means the firm routes your orders rather than trading against you as principal.
Kenya is one of the few markets where an offshore-heavy broker holds a real local authorisation rather than simply accepting Kenyan clients from a distant island register. That matters for where your money sits and who you can complain to.
Two Entities, One Brand
Kenyan clients can be onboarded under the locally licensed subsidiary, FP Markets Ltd (FP Markets Limited), or via the offshore arm. Those are different legal entities, and they sit under different regulators with different protections.
| Aspect | Local CMA Entity | Offshore Arm |
|---|---|---|
| Regulator | CMA Kenya, licence No. 103 | Offshore register |
| Local recourse | Yes, via CMA | None in Kenya |
| Client fund rules | Segregation + audits required | Varies by register |
| Leverage conditions | CMA conditions apply | Group terms may differ |
| Complaint route | Capital Markets Fraud Investigation Unit | Offshore regulator only |
Onboarding entity matters because it decides everything downstream: who audits the client money, what happens if something goes wrong, and whether a Kenyan authority has any jurisdiction at all. Verify it at signup, not after.
What the CMA Actually Requires
The licence isn't a rubber stamp. CMA-licensed brokers in Kenya have to meet a minimum paid-up capital of KES 50 million, segregate client funds from company money, cap leverage, and submit to audits. Around 10 non-dealing forex brokers held CMA licences as of our review.
For context on how new some of this is: TPXM Global Kenya Limited was licensed in September 2025. The local licensed-broker pool is small and the bar to entry is meaningful.
Leverage, and Where the Numbers Come From
Leverage is where retail accounts die.
FP Markets offers up to 1:500 across the group, but CMA-regulated conditions apply to the local entity. CMA-licensed brokers are capped at roughly 1:400 on major FX pairs for retail accounts. Offshore and unlicensed outfits advertise 1:1000 and beyond, and they can do that because no Kenyan rule binds them.
Run the arithmetic on 1:400. A 0.25% adverse move against a full-margin position erases the margin entirely. At 1:500 that same move takes you out faster. The cap exists so a normal bad week doesn't become a liquidation event, and it's one of the few regulatory numbers that translates directly into how long your account survives.
Reading the Licence Categories
CMA issues three distinct categories, and they mean different things for your order flow.
- Dealing Online Foreign Exchange Broker: acts as principal or market maker, takes the other side of your trade
- Non-Dealing Online Foreign Exchange Broker: STP or agency model, routes orders instead of trading against you
- Online Foreign Exchange Money Manager: manages client funds, doesn't just execute
FP Markets sits in the second category. For traders, the non-dealing structure is the one to prefer where you have the choice, because the broker's revenue comes from spreads and commissions rather than from your losses.
Checking Costs Before You Commit
Regulation tells you who supervises the firm. It tells you nothing about whether the pricing is fair, so check both.
| Account | Spread | Commission | Min deposit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | ~1.0-1.2 pips | None | USD 100 |
| Raw | 0.0-0.1 pips NAS100 | ~USD 6 per round-turn lot | USD 100 |
Both run on MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView. The instrument list is broad: 10,000+ CFDs across 60+ FX pairs, indices, commodities, shares, ETFs, bonds and crypto CFDs. A swap-free Islamic account is available, which matters for Kenya's Muslim traders concentrated along the coast and in the north-east.
For a Kenyan account funded in KES, watch the conversion cost if your account is USD-denominated. That's a recurring drag on returns that's easy to overlook until you total it up over a year of trading.
The Less Glossy Parts
A CMA licence is a genuine positive, and it's also not a blanket shield. Negative-balance protection isn't confirmed as an explicit statutory mandate in Kenya, so verify that directly with CMA and the broker rather than assuming it. Read the terms on the entity you're actually onboarding with.
On the funding side, FP Markets lists cards, bank wire and e-wallets. Local M-Pesa and KES rails are likely but weren't verified at our review, and local KES account availability wasn't confirmed either. If mobile money is how you move funds, that's a question to put to support before depositing. Base currencies include USD, EUR, GBP, AUD and others.
Then there's tax, which has nothing to do with the licence and everything to do with your net result. Forex and CFD profit is treated as ordinary income for most Kenyan retail traders, not capital gains, taxed on graduated bands running from roughly 10% up to a 35% top marginal rate. Trading through a company attracts a 30% corporate rate. Tax residents file an annual return declaring worldwide income, including foreign-sourced trading gains, between 1 January and 30 June, with installment tax due 20 April, June, September and December. Deductible costs include platform fees, internet and training. Confirm your own position with KRA at https://www.kra.go.ke/.
No verified Kenya-specific promotion was available at our review.
What the Licence Doesn't Cover
A CMA licence covers conduct in Kenya. It doesn't cover the offshore entity if that's where your account lands, and it doesn't cover trading losses. No regulator refunds a bad position.
CMA has repeatedly issued public cautionary statements warning residents against unlicensed online forex entities and directs victims to the Capital Markets Fraud Investigation Unit. Common local schemes involve Ponzi-style forex investment plans, account-manager cons promising guaranteed returns through M-Pesa, cloned platforms, and social-media signal and copy-trade fraud. None of that is a reason to avoid regulated international brokers. It's a reason to verify the register before you send money anywhere.
What Still Matters Later
Six months from now, the licence category and the onboarding entity will still be what determines your protection, long after the signup bonus or the platform comparison has faded from memory. Bookmark the CMA register. Save your onboarding documents and the entity name on your account agreement. Keep a dated record of your deposits and withdrawals, because you'll want it at tax filing time regardless of how the year went.
The traders who stay in this game are the ones who checked two things before funding: who regulates the entity holding their money, and what the worst realistic move does to their account. Everything else is detail.
