Saxo Bank is no longer available in Cyprus: alternatives in 2026

Saxo (formerly Saxo Bank), the Danish multi-asset broker majority-owned by the Swiss private bank J. Safra Sarasin since March 2026, withdrew from a long list of markets in 2024, and Cyprus was one of them.

Since 1 July 2024, Saxo has not accepted new clients from Cyprus, and the position has not changed since.

This article explains what happened, what it means if you still hold an account, and which platforms Cypriot investors can use instead.

Is Saxo available in Cyprus?

No. Saxo stopped accepting Cypriot clients on 1 July 2024, and Cyprus remains on its restricted list.

You can check Saxo’s full list of accepted and restricted countries here.

If you try to open a Saxo account from Cyprus, you will not find “Cyprus” in the country selector:

Impact on existing clients

Existing Cypriot clients were not offboarded immediately. Saxo stated in 2024 that it expected to complete the offboarding of clients in unsupported regions by the end of that year, and that it was legally obliged to contact affected clients directly.

There is no public confirmation that the process was completed on that timeline, and outcomes appear to have varied case by case. If you still hold an account, the practical steps are the same as for any forced platform exit:

• Contact Saxo directly to confirm the status of your account and any deadline that applies to you, rather than relying on general reporting, including ours.
• Transfer your holdings in kind to another broker rather than selling them, if you can. A transfer moves the securities themselves and avoids turning an administrative change into a taxable event.
• Open the receiving account first. Transfers need somewhere to go, and doing this in the wrong order is how people end up forced to liquidate.
• Keep the paperwork, including your acquisition costs and dates, which you will need for your Cypriot tax return and which are harder to reconstruct after an account closes.

Why did Saxo leave Cyprus?

Saxo did not single out Cyprus. The withdrawal was part of a broader reduction in country coverage announced to partners in mid-2024, covering 42 countries and territories across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. Alongside Cyprus, the European list included Albania, Georgia, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Serbia and Turkey.

In its statement to partners, Saxo said the goal was to optimise resources, ensure regulatory compliance and mitigate risks, concentrating its efforts on markets aligned with its business objectives. It confirmed that applications from any country outside the supported list would be rejected from 1 July 2024.

The context helps explain the pattern. Serving a market means maintaining local regulatory permissions, tax reporting and support in each jurisdiction, and that cost is fixed whether the country holds a thousand clients or a hundred thousand. The length of the list points to a group-wide focus on scale rather than anything specific to Cypriot investors or Cypriot regulation.

There is an irony worth noting for readers here: Cyprus is one of Europe’s largest hubs for retail brokerage, and CySEC (the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) regulates a great many of the platforms available across the EU. Losing Saxo does not leave Cypriot investors short of regulated options, as the list below shows.

Alternatives for Cypriot investors

For affected investors, there are several reputable alternatives:

1. Interactive Brokers: best alternative overall, and the closest equivalent to Saxo, with access to 170+ markets and low commissions.
2. eToro: best for social trading, with a $1 commission on stock trades and no inactivity fee. Its European entity is CySEC-regulated and based in Cyprus.
3. XTB: best for commission-free stocks and ETFs. Cypriot clients are served by XTB Limited (CySEC licence 169/12), with 0% commission up to €100,000 of monthly turnover (0.2%, min. €10, above that), no minimum deposit and a 0.5% currency conversion fee.
4. Plus500*: best for its demo account and contracts for difference (CFDs), through its CySEC-regulated entity Plus500CY Ltd.
5. Trading 212**: best for beginners and automatic investing with Pies & AutoInvest. Stocks and ETFs carry no commission (other fees may apply, see terms and fees), and a 0.15% FX fee applies when converting funds. See our Trading 212 promo code page for the current free share offer.

If what you valued about Saxo was the breadth of instruments and the professional-grade platform, Interactive Brokers is the natural replacement. If you mainly held stocks and ETFs and want something simpler, XTB, eToro and Trading 212 are worth comparing on cost. Plus500 only suits CFD traders.

What to check before choosing a replacement

A forced move is a good moment to check the things that are easy to ignore when you are already settled somewhere:

• Does the broker accept Cypriot residents? Availability changes, as this article demonstrates. Confirm it in the registration flow before you plan around a platform.
• Which entity will you contract with? Investor compensation follows the entity, not the brand. A CySEC-regulated entity carries cover of up to €20,000 under the Cypriot Investor Compensation Fund, while other entities have their own schemes and limits.
• Does it accept incoming transfers of the specific holdings you own, and what does it charge for them?
• What are the currency conversion costs? If you hold dollar-denominated assets, this is often the largest recurring cost, and it is rarely in the headline comparison.

How investments are taxed in Cyprus

Whichever broker you move to, the tax rules stay the same, and the 2026 tax reform changed some of them:

• Gains on shares and ETFs: profits from selling securities are generally exempt from income tax for individuals. Capital gains tax (20%) only applies to Cyprus property and to shares in companies that derive at least 20% of their value from Cyprus property.
• Dividends: since 1 January 2026, Cyprus tax-resident and domiciled individuals pay the special defence contribution (SDC) at 5% instead of 17%. Non-domiciled residents are exempt.
• Crypto: gains from disposing of crypto-assets are now taxed at a flat 8%.
• US dividends: filing the W-8BEN form with your broker lets you claim the 15% withholding rate under the Cyprus and United States tax treaty, instead of 30%.

Keep the records of your purchase prices and dates when you move brokers: your new platform will not always import the original cost of transferred holdings.

Conclusion

Saxo’s exit from Cyprus was part of a wider retreat from smaller markets rather than a judgement about Cyprus itself, and it is now settled: the country stays on the restricted list, and there has been no indication of a return.

If you were a client, the useful work is choosing where to go and, where possible, transferring rather than selling. If you were only considering Saxo, the alternatives above cover the same ground, and one of them is likely to be cheaper for what you actually trade.

Can I still open a Saxo account from Cyprus?
No. Cyprus is not in Saxo’s country selector, and applications from Cyprus have been rejected since 1 July 2024.

Which alternatives are regulated by CySEC?
eToro, XTB and Plus500 serve Cypriot clients through CySEC-regulated entities, with investor compensation of up to €20,000.

Do I pay tax when I transfer shares from Saxo to another broker?
A transfer in kind is not a sale, and gains on shares are generally exempt from income tax in Cyprus. Selling and buying again would not normally create a tax bill either, but it adds trading and currency costs.