Broker-Dealer / Virtual Asset Licenses and Other Financial Licenses Mauritius

PREMIER Financial Services Limited (Premier) is an FSC licensed management and trust company operating from Mauritius IFC. Premier has offices in Mauritius, Dubai and Seychelles and offers its services to high-net-worth families, private companies, multinationals and listed entities across the globe. The company is reputed for its punctual and cost-effective services with highest ethical standards.

Our Mauritius office is a member of the INNA Group, an association of tax and accounting experts based worldwide in more than 50 countries and ranked 14^th worldwide among associations and alliances. Our Seychelles office is a member of UHY, which is a network of independent accounting and consulting firms with offices in over 273 major business centres in 101 countries and is ranked 17^th worldwide.

Our Dubai office is licensed by the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and is an approved Registered Agent of RAK ICC. Our Dubai Officeis a member of ISFIN, which is an award-winning advisory firm that accelerates international business strategy which has a network of leading professional firms accredited in 75 countries. We are ideally located in geographical terms to cover the EMEA region as a one-stop-shop corporate services provider. It is supported by its Representative office in South Africa.

Mauritius offers several interesting financial licences. The Securities Act 2005 allows for Investment Dealer companies to be set up and licensed in Mauritius under three categories namely, Full-Service Dealer, Discount Broker and Broker. The choice depends on activities to be carried out such as to act as intermediary or as principal in the execution of securities transactions, underwrite or distribute securities, manage portfolios of clients and give advice.

Investment Dealer licence in Mauritius is increasingly becoming popular for many reasons such advantageous taxation regime, a flexible legal framework, cost effective, a simple process and a reasonable timeframe.

For a successful broker licence application, there should be experienced key personnel having a minimum of 2-3 years’ of direct brokerage experience with a regulated/licensed broker company. The key personnel can be directors as well as part of operations team. We are here to guide you with the process of the application and preparation of all documents and manuals. Once the licence is obtained, our post-licence involvement is a whole host of services from registered office, bank account opening, compliance, accounting and tax services.

Mauritius is among the first few countries that have introduced laws and regulations on virtual assets. The Virtual Assets and Initial Token Offering Services Act 2021 introduces the legal and regulatory framework for regulating Initial Token Offerings and Virtual Assets services providers and ensuring these activities are in line with AML/CFT norms recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

This Act defines a Virtual Asset (“VA”) as a digital representation of value that may be digitally traded or transferred and may be used for payment or investment purposes; but does not include a digital presentation of fiat currencies, securities and other financial assets that fall under the purview of the Securities Act. The activities that can be carried out by Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) are as follows:

1. Exchange between virtual assets and fiat currencies;

2. Exchange between one or more forms of virtual assets;

3. Transfer of virtual assets;

4. Safekeeping of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets;

5. Administration of virtual assets or instruments enabling control over virtual assets;

6. Participation in and provision of financial services related to an issuer’s offer and sale of a virtual asset;

Premier has a dedicated team to look after the application process providing all templates, draft agreements, procedures manuals, AML, business plan and oversees the whole process until approval. All post licensing services are also provided such as accounting, taxation, compliance, regulatory matters, etc.

Other Jurisdictions

We also offer financial licences (Securities Dealer Licence, Brokerage Licence, Payment Service Provider Licence, etc) in jurisdictions like Seychelles and Dubai