CaspianFX selects brokers based on two things we can verify: the licence held by the entity that actually serves residents of Georgia, Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, and whether that broker is confirmed to accept clients from those markets. We never publish ratings, spreads or minimum deposits from our own editorial desk unless we have verified them hands-on — those fields stay null and the copy says so openly.
Why does a broker review desk exist for the Caucasus and Central Asia?
Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan share a problem generic broker-review sites ignore: none of the three has a strong local retail-forex licensing regime. Residents must choose from offshore-regulated brokers — entities licensed in Seychelles, Belize, Cyprus or elsewhere — with no National Bank of Georgia (NBG), ARDFM, AFSA or Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBAR) supervision covering the offshore broker you actually deposit with. That gap is the reason CaspianFX exists. A review desk calibrated to UK or EU readers will tell you the FCA entity is great without mentioning that a Georgian or Azerbaijani resident is likely being served by the Seychelles FSA arm instead.
Our editorial purpose is practical: identify which offshore-regulated brokers accept residents from these three markets, verify the entity and licence on the regulator's own register, and report the funding and withdrawal routes that actually work for Georgian lari, Kazakhstani tenge and Azerbaijani manat. We do not make money from the brokers we cover until an affiliate program is formally joined and disclosed; the affiliate disclosure is visible on every page.
How do we select which brokers to include?
A broker is included in our coverage if it meets all three of the following conditions. First, it holds at least one verifiable licence from a recognised regulatory authority — we check the entity name and licence number directly on the issuing regulator's public register (FCA at register.fca.org.uk, ASIC via Moneysmart, CySEC at cysec.gov.cy, Seychelles FSA at fsaseychelles.sc, Belize FSC at ifsc.gov.bz, and others). An unverifiable or lapsed licence disqualifies a broker from inclusion.
Second, the broker must be confirmed to accept residents of at least one of our three cluster markets (Georgia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan). Where acceptance is not confirmed from the broker's own signup flow, we flag the uncertainty and do not generate market×broker pages. We explicitly exclude brokers confirmed not to serve specific markets — for example, Octa does not accept Kazakhstani clients and is excluded from our Kazakhstan coverage. Third, the broker must offer offshore-reality relevant features: where a broker is available in the region, we cover it honestly, including the offshore-entity limitation.
- Condition 1: verifiable licence on the issuing regulator's register.
- Condition 2: confirmed acceptance of clients from at least one cluster market.
- Condition 3: offshore-entity reality disclosed — the entity that serves you, not the parent group's headline licence.
- Exclusion: Octa is excluded from Kazakhstan coverage (confirmed non-acceptance).
- Exclusion: FP Markets allowedGeo unconfirmed — no market×broker pages generated until verified.
What do we verify, and what do we leave honest-null?
We verify: the legal entity name, the regulator's abbreviation and jurisdiction, the licence status (currently authorised, not lapsed or withdrawn), and the founding year — all from publicly available, authoritative sources. We also verify whether a broker offers a swap-free account type, and which trading platforms (MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView and broker-proprietary apps) it supports. These are facts we can confirm without a live trading account.
We leave honest-null: star ratings, typical spreads, minimum deposit amounts and withdrawal processing times. These change frequently, vary by account type and promo period, and we have not independently verified them through hands-on funded accounts for every broker in our set. Publishing invented numbers in a YMYL financial context is a category error that would make us less reliable than the broker's own website. Our copy uses honest-null fallback language: 'check the broker's current figures on their site'. We flag this openly because we believe it is more trustworthy than a number we made up.
- Verified: regulator, entity name, licence status, founding year, platforms, swap-free availability.
- Honest-null: star ratings, typical spreads, minimum deposits, withdrawal times — not yet hands-on verified.
- We will update null fields to real values only after a hands-on funded review pass.
- No fabrication, ever — this is the non-negotiable rule for YMYL financial content.
Who operates this desk and what is our independence policy?
CaspianFX is an independent editorial desk. Our editorial coverage decisions — which brokers to include, how they are described, which entities we flag — are not paid for by brokers, and no broker has editorial approval over the content we write about them. We operate as an affiliate publisher: when a reader uses a tracked link to open an account, we may earn a commission from the broker's affiliate program. Affiliate programs are listed in our broker data (affiliateProgram field) but affiliate links are marked null until the program is formally joined and KYC-complete for this venture.
The byline on guides and broker pages is 'CaspianFX Editorial' until a named author with verifiable forex or finance credentials is appointed and their identity published with a Person schema (job title, verified credentials, contact). We are explicit about this because named authorship with verifiable expertise is a hard requirement for YMYL content to carry weight — and we will not fake it with a fictional persona. When a real named author is in place, that will be published here.
Frequently asked questions
Does CaspianFX receive payment from the brokers it covers?
CaspianFX operates as an affiliate publisher and may earn a commission if a reader opens an account via a tracked link. Affiliate programs are disclosed in our broker data. Editorial coverage decisions — which brokers are included, how they are described — are not paid for by brokers and no broker has editorial approval. Affiliate links are marked null until a program is formally joined for this venture.
Why don't you publish star ratings or spreads?
Because we have not verified them hands-on for every broker in our coverage set, and publishing invented numbers in a high-risk financial context is worse than publishing nothing. Spreads change frequently, vary by account type and are better checked on the broker's own live rates page. We will update those fields to real values only after a funded hands-on review pass.
How do you confirm a broker's licence is valid?
We search the exact legal entity name and licence number on the issuing regulator's own public register — not a third-party database or the broker's own site. For offshore entities, that means the Seychelles FSA register, the Belize IFSC register, CySEC, ASIC, FCA and others. We confirm the entity is currently authorised and the permission covers CFD or investment dealing.
What is the 'honest-null' policy?
Where a data field (rating, spread, minimum deposit) has not been verified hands-on, we set it to null and the copy says 'check the broker's current figures' rather than publishing a placeholder number. In a YMYL financial context, a null with honest copy is more trustworthy than an invented figure. We believe this is a signal of reliability, not a gap.
Who writes the editorial content on CaspianFX?
Content is currently published under the 'CaspianFX Editorial' byline. We will replace this with a named author with verifiable forex or finance credentials and a published Person schema (credentials, contact) as soon as that appointment is made. We are explicit about this because YMYL content without a verifiable named author stays in draft status — we do not fabricate author identities.
CaspianFX is an independent editorial desk for resident traders in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan — markets where no strong local retail forex regime exists and offshore licensing is the practical reality. We verify every licence against the issuing authority's register, state candidly what that offshore regulation does and does not protect, and cover the funding and withdrawal routes that actually work for lari, tenge and manat. No payment is accepted for coverage.