Top CySEC-regulated brokers, ranked by our disclosed methodology. A CySEC licence carries the right to passport services into Greece under MiFID II, but passporting works via a per-country notification the firm's home regulator files on its behalf -- it isn't automatic, and which specific products or account types are actually offered can vary by entity and by country even where notification is in place. Treat "CySEC-regulated" as confirmation of the licence, not a guarantee that every broker below is actively onboarding Greece retail clients today -- confirm directly with the broker. Brokers we cover whose only licence is offshore (e.g. Seychelles FSA) aren't EU-passportable at all and are left out of this page for that reason -- see our full reviews for those.
Greece joined the EU in 1981 and the eurozone in 2001. The HCMC supervises domestic financial markets, and -- being geographically and culturally close to Cyprus -- Greek retail traders are especially likely to already be familiar with CySEC-licensed brokers, many of which run Greek-language sites and support.
No broker in our current dataset is headquartered in Greece itself, so the ranking below reflects our overall EU-wide scoring.
Base currency: EUR (eurozone) · Local regulator: HCMC (Hellenic Capital Market Commission) · EU member since: 1981
Any broker serving Greece retail clients operates under MiFID II, the EU-wide framework covering investment firms, plus the retail-facing product intervention rules ESMA introduced in 2018 (leverage caps, standardized risk warnings, negative balance protection, and a ban on bonus incentives). A CySEC (or other EU member-state) licence is the precondition for legally offering these services anywhere in the EU/EEA, but the firm must also complete a MiFID passporting notification for Greece specifically -- it is not automatic just because the firm is licensed somewhere in the EU.
This is the detail most broker-comparison content glosses over: investor compensation for a passported broker (the large majority of brokers on this site, relative to Greece) comes from the broker's home-country scheme, not a Greece-specific one. For a CySEC-licensed entity, that means Cyprus's Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), covering eligible retail clients up to €20,000 per person if the firm fails -- the same cover regardless of which EU country the client lives in. A UK FCA entity instead carries the UK's FSCS cover, up to £85,000 per person, via a separate licence that doesn't passport from the EU side at all post-Brexit.
No broker in our researched set is confirmed to hold a Greece-licensed entity specifically (as opposed to a passported CySEC or other EU entity), so no Greece-specific compensation scheme applies to any broker reviewed here -- it's the home regulator's scheme in every case. See our investor compensation schemes page for the general mechanics.
Retail leverage is capped under the same ESMA-derived limits across every EU member state, Greece included: 30:1 on major currency pairs, 20:1 on non-major pairs/gold/major indices, 10:1 on other commodities and non-major indices, 5:1 on individual equities, and 2:1 on crypto-asset CFDs. Clients who qualify as "professional" under MiFID II's elective-professional criteria (meeting at least two of: a sufficiently large portfolio, relevant trading frequency/experience, or relevant industry employment) can apply for higher leverage, but lose the retail-specific protections -- including, notably, negative balance protection -- that come with those caps.
Greek sources describe a flat 15% capital gains tax on derivative gains for resident individuals, with CFDs commonly treated as derivatives for this purpose (residency test: present over 183 days/year, or "center of vital interests" in Greece). A genuine area of uncertainty: a 2014-era rule suggests frequent, pattern-like trading could instead be deemed a business activity and taxed at ordinary income rates (reportedly up to ~33%) rather than the flat 15% -- the current precise test for this reclassification wasn't confirmed. Consult a Greek tax adviser for your specific position.
General overview only, not tax advice -- rules change and depend on your personal circumstances (including whether you're classified as trading as a business). Confirm your specific position with a local tax advisor.
Not found -- no Greece-specific payment rail was found; deposit methods cited are the generic set (SEPA/local bank transfer, cards, Skrill, increasingly crypto).
None found beyond the EU baseline. The HCMC's additional activity in this space consists of individual public warnings naming specific unauthorized platforms, rather than a published blacklist or an extra regulatory regime comparable to some other EU states.
None of the brokers in our researched set are confirmed to be headquartered in Greece, or to hold a Greece-licensed entity specifically -- every broker ranked below passports in under its EU licence from elsewhere (typically Cyprus). We don't have comprehensive data on which brokers have filed a branch-level or local-office notification short of full headquarters, so we don't claim one here rather than guess.
Ranked using our disclosed overall broker score (nine weighted categories, led by regulation & client protection and trading costs) -- every broker here holds a CySEC licence capable of being passported into Greece, not a confirmed, currently-active local notification for each one (see the nuance above). We don't have independent country-level trading-volume or market-share data, so this reflects broker quality and, where applicable, a confirmed local headquarters -- not measured local popularity. See our comparison tool to compare any two directly, or the leverage guide for what the EU-wide ESMA rules mean for your account.
Is forex/CFD trading legal in Greece?
Yes. Retail forex/CFD trading is legal through a firm authorized by the HCMC or passported from another EU/EEA regulator. The HCMC publishes warnings against specific unauthorized platforms -- verify any broker's licence on the HCMC's register before depositing.
Do I need to declare CFD/forex trading gains to the Greek tax authority?
General sources point to a flat 15% capital gains tax on derivative gains for residents, but whether frequent trading could instead be classed as a taxable business activity (at a higher rate) isn't clearly settled in available sources. This isn't tax advice -- consult a Greek tax professional about your specific situation.
Greece: HCMC (Hellenic Capital Market Commission) (official site) · EU-wide: ESMA · Broker licensing: our CySEC regulation page