Starting a brokerage from India

The version updated as on 19 November 2025 has 95 entries, and RBI notes that the list is not exhaustive, so a name missing from it should never be read as authorised.

The list also covers websites that appear to promote unauthorised platforms through advertising or by claiming to offer training or advice, and in February 2023 RBI warned residents about promoters offering 'demo trading' in a 'simulated environment'. SEBI's 2018 advisory on foreign trading portals made a similar point from the securities side, cautioning investors to avoid unregulated web portals offering derivatives with high leverage and without KYC.

For a founder, that places marketing, education and practice accounts aimed at Indian residents inside the same legal question as live trading.

RBI's LRS Master Direction states that remittances for margins or margin calls to overseas exchanges or overseas counterparties are not allowed, and the scheme's FAQ lists remittance for trading in foreign exchange abroad among its prohibited items.

In practice that shuts the usual deposit route for an Indian client of an overseas forex or CFD broker before any payment provider is even asked. A plan built around Indian clients meets the payment problem before it reaches the licence problem.

Its Electronic Trading Platforms Directions, 2025, issued on 16 June 2025, require an operator to be a company incorporated in India with a net worth of at least ₹5 crore at all times, and RBI says it will be selective in granting authorisation. SEBI registers stock brokers as trading members of the exchanges, with a base net worth of Rs 1 crore under its Stock Brokers Regulations, 2026.

Both are onshore routes into exchange or interbank infrastructure. We found no category in RBI's or SEBI's documents for a firm that fills retail forex and CFD orders over the counter, which is the model our platform runs.

The published rules offer two onshore routes, and neither is a licence to deal retail forex and CFDs over the counter.

The exchange route is to register with SEBI as a stock broker and trade as a member of the currency derivatives segment of NSE, BSE or MSE. Clients then trade exchange-traded futures and options on the currency pairs RBI permits: USD-INR, EUR-INR, GBP-INR and JPY-INR, and the cross pairs EUR-USD, GBP-USD and USD-JPY. Contracts involving the rupee are for hedging contracted exposure: a user may hold positions of up to USD 100 million across exchanges without first proving the exposure, but must have it and be able to show it if asked.

The other route is RBI authorisation to operate an electronic trading platform, described above. Neither covers leveraged trading on other pairs, metals or indices with a dealer, and a licence held by a company abroad does not change whom Indian residents may lawfully trade with. Before any plan, check the firms involved against RBI's Alert List, and take it to a lawyer who practises Indian foreign exchange and securities law. This is general information, not legal advice.

That does not settle the founder's own position: RBI's forex FAQ says residents who operate unauthorised trading platforms and collect or remit payments outside India are liable to penal action under laws including FEMA and the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002. Whether you may own the entity from India, where it sits, which markets it may serve and what a team in India may lawfully do for it are questions for a lawyer who practises Indian foreign exchange law, answered in writing before launch.

Our page on how the offshore licence options compare lays out the usual shortlist without picking one for you. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Pelris is a software company and does not advise on licences.

It carries forex, metals, oil, indices, crypto and US stocks across 311 instruments, and deposits credit through the online checkout or after your staff approve them against the bank, crypto or e-wallet details you configure.