Top CySEC-regulated brokers, ranked by our disclosed methodology. A CySEC licence carries the right to passport services into Romania 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 Romania 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.
Romania joined the EU in 2007 and has not adopted the euro, retaining the leu (RON). The ASF supervises domestic non-banking financial markets, working alongside the EU-wide ESMA framework that governs any CySEC-passported broker serving Romanian retail clients.
No broker in our current dataset is headquartered in Romania, so the ranking below reflects our overall EU-wide scoring.
Base currency: RON · Local regulator: ASF (Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiară) · EU member since: 2007
Any broker serving Romania 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 Romania 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 Romania) comes from the broker's home-country scheme, not a Romania-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 Romania-licensed entity specifically (as opposed to a passported CySEC or other EU entity), so no Romania-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, Romania 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.
Romanian tax rules reportedly changed as of 2026: gains via a Romania-resident intermediary are taxed at 3% (positions held 365+ days) or 6% (held under 365 days), withheld by the intermediary; gains via a non-Romanian (foreign) broker are instead self-assessed at a reported 16% on net annual gains, filed directly with ANAF. This is a recent change and sources show some disagreement on exact figures -- confirm current rates with ANAF (anaf.ro) or a licensed Romanian accountant (contabil autorizat) before relying on any specific number.
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. Romanian retail payment habits skew toward cash-on-delivery for e-commerce generally, with bank cards and transfers as the main digital rails -- no evidence of a Romania-specific rail used for broker deposits.
The ASF requires that third-country (non-EU/EEA) firms serve Romanian clients only through an ASF-authorised branch, unless the client initiated contact entirely unprompted ("reverse solicitation") -- a genuine Romania-specific layer beyond the EU baseline for non-EU firms. Using an unauthorized entity means no protection under Romania's Investor Compensation Fund. The ASF also actively publishes investor alerts on unauthorized entities (172 entities, ~199 related websites, per a 2023 report).
None of the brokers in our researched set are confirmed to be headquartered in Romania, or to hold a Romania-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 Romania, 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 Romania?
Yes, through an ASF-authorised firm or an EU/EEA firm passporting in -- check ASF's public register first, since ASF has repeatedly warned about unauthorised entities and fraudulent "authorisation" documents.
Can a firm based outside the EU legally offer me CFD trading in Romania?
Only through an ASF-authorised branch, unless you contacted them entirely on your own initiative (reverse solicitation) -- otherwise the firm is operating without authorisation and you have no Investor Compensation Fund protection.
Romania: ASF (Autoritatea de Supraveghere Financiară) (official site) · EU-wide: ESMA · Broker licensing: our CySEC regulation page