Editorial wording and withdrawal-help links updated 8 October 2026. No new register or account test was completed for this update; the findings retain their original check dates below.
What CIF Markets claims
CIF Markets (also written CIFMarkets) is a CFD brand at cifmarkets.com — a young one: domain records reported by third parties show the site registered in April 2025. Its operator is described as Aclive Wealth Advisory (Pty) Ltd, a South African company claiming FSCA authorisation under FSP 54857, and — per the terms reproduced in third-party coverage — clients are onboarded by the South African entity while the actual trading counterparty is an Intrepot entity registered in the Comoros under MISA. We say "reported" deliberately: the counterparty arrangement still comes from secondary coverage. We could now read the broker's own February 2026 cookie-policy PDF: it names Aclive Wealth Advisory (Pty) Ltd, company 2022/427817/07, and FSP 54857. A company document establishes what it claims; only the regulator can establish the licence status and permissions.
Two names not to confuse it with: "CIF" in this brand is not a Cyprus Investment Firm — the CySEC-licensed entity type the abbreviation normally means; no register we checked shows any CySEC licence for this brand. And it is not "Cif Finance", a different operation that currently dominates some of the search results for this brand's own name.
The licence question we could not close
Two different registers matter here, and they told us two different things. The FSCA's OTC Derivative Providers search — the authorisation normally required to offer CFDs to South African clients — we queried first-hand on 25 August 2026: no results for Aclive Wealth Advisory, searched in full and in partial form. The FSP-number search (which would show the claimed FAIS licence 54857 and its categories) is a different tool. On 19 September 2026, itscurrent search form loaded, but our submission returned no result panel. This did not establish a match or absence; contact the FSCA for a licence extract if the form does not return one. So the FAIS claim — FSP 54857, held by Aclive Wealth Advisory — is, from where we sit, unverified in either direction. Third parties don't help: some review sites say they verified the licence; one well-known aggregator states no licence was found. We repeat neither. But here is why the ODP result above matters even if the FSP claim checks out: a standard FAIS Category I licence covers intermediary and advisory services — offering CFDs to South African clients normally requires the separate OTC derivative provider authorisation, and the register search for that authorisation returns nothing for this operator on the date searched. That search does not establish which company provides a particular customer's trading contract; confirm the counterparty and its permissions from the agreement and the regulator.
Update, 9 September 2026: we also searched the FSCA's Enforcement Actions register first-hand for this operator. It returns no results for Aclive Wealth Advisory. This describes that search on that date; it does not establish that no notice exists elsewhere, confirm the FAIS claim or resolve the September FSP-number lookup. A missing search result and a regulator finding are different forms of evidence.
The Comoros counterparty — corrected 26 August
Correction, 26 August 2026: an earlier version of this page, published one day before, reported no Intrepot entry on this register. That reading came from the registrar's mirror sites — the canonical domain blocks automated reading — and the mirrors turned out to be stale. A direct browser read of the canonical register found the listing below; we corrected this section the same day. Corrections are always logged openly here.
The reported terms route the actual trading relationship to an Intrepot entity in the Comoros. The canonical Mwali register, read first-hand on 26 August 2026, lists "Intrepot Investment" — licence BFX2025155, status active, issued 30 December 2025 and expiring 30 December 2026, company number HV00126489, website intrepot.com. These are the status and dates displayed when the record was read, not a fresh confirmation of its current status. The record also listed one named individual at a Cyprus address as CEO and ultimate beneficial owner. An address or a brand name does not establish CySEC authorisation, and this register entry alone does not establish that Intrepot is the counterparty on your agreement or which compensation and complaint arrangements apply. (For a separate register-matching case, see our WorldCapital1 check, which found a Mwali licence number registered to a different company entirely.)
The UK "payment agent" — verified first-hand
Third-party coverage describes withdrawals as routed through a UK company, Aclive Advisory (UK) Ltd, charging a reported 3% + $0.25 fee. The company itself we could verify: Companies House shows it incorporated on 23 February 2026— about six months before this check — with a business classification of "other business support service activities", not a financial or payments code, and we found no FCA authorisation for it in the searches described here. Incorporation and a business classification do not themselves establish financial-service permissions or the company's role in your payment. Confirm that role from the current agreement — see brand vs legal entity for why the entity in the money path matters more than the brand on the website.
What we did not find
- Warning-search limits: the CNMV search on 25 August 2026 returned no match for the brand; the FSCA Enforcement Actions search on 9 September 2026 returned no results for Aclive Wealth Advisory. These dated search results do not establish that no warning or action exists, or confirm authorisation.
- Customer-experience limits: this review does not include independently verified customer accounts or a test deposit or withdrawal. Search results and third-party reviews cannot establish the outcome of an individual request.
- The broker's own cookie policy now confirms its stated company and FSP number, but current client terms, fees and the counterparty arrangement still need primary-document verification.
Before depositing, get these answered
- Ask in writing which legal entity is your trading counterparty, and match the exact name against the registers yourself.
- Ask for the FSCA FSP number and verify it with the FSCA directly — including whether an OTC derivative provider authorisation exists, not just a FAIS licence. The current FSCA FSP search form loaded on 19 September but our query returned no result panel. Ask the FSCA for a dated extract if an online lookup is inconclusive.
- Ask whether the reported UK payment-agent arrangement applies to your account, who receives and returns the money, and what the full fee is.
- Resolve the company, permissions and payment terms before funding. A successful small withdrawal would establish only that payment's outcome, not later access to funds.
For an existing withdrawal request, build a withdrawal checklist and support-message draft. Choose “Another broker / I am not sure”: CIF Markets is not in the tool's broker database, so it will not apply a reviewed policy or deadline to your account.
No accusation is implied by anything above — this page documents what official sources show and what they don't, as of the dates stated. If you have first-hand experience with this broker, report it to us — reports are internal signals that help us catch patterns early.