Cyprus forex industry employs 7,000 people —actual number may be higher

Approximately 7,000 people in Cyprus work in forex, although the actual number may potentially be much higher than that, according to recently published research from TradeInformer, a business-to-business news and research portal that covers the global retail trading industry.

According to the above figure, this means that approximately 1.65 per cent of Cypriot private sector employees work in the forex industry.

In addition, these people also comprise close to 40 per cent of financial services workers in Cyprus, with similar numbers to those working in the Cypriot banking sector.

“It is entirely plausible that the forex industry is the biggest employer within the financial services industry in Cyprus,” said TradeInformer founder David Kimberley.

“7,000 may not seem like a massive number but it is huge for what is ultimately a small country, with a workforce of less than 500,000 people,” he added.

Furthermore, more than 6,000 people in Cyprus work for brokers, liquidity providers, and other retail-facing trading firms.

Additionally, almost 700 work for ancillary service providers, such as technology providers and law firms, who provide services to the forex industry.

“If you took the same percentage and applied it to the UK, it would be the equivalent of close to half a million people working in forex,” Kimberley said.

“So it’s unsurprising that some companies, notably Exness, are among the biggest private sector employers in Cyprus today,” he added.

The company also stated that due to the difficulty of identifying every active company in the sector and those operating in Cyprus, it is likely that the actual number of people employed in the forex industry in Cyprus is even higher than these initial figures indicate.

What is more, TradeInformer said that the industry is also likely to have sizeable knock-on effects on the wider Cypriot economy.

The reason for this is that some companies have annual profits that are equal to a meaningful proportion of Cypriot GDP, according to the news and research platform.

The research pointed out as an example to retail broker XM, which “had profits in excess of 1 per cent of Cyprus’s GDP in 2022”.

“It would not surprise me if the combined revenues from companies active in the forex sector exceed those produced by the Cypriot tourist industry, despite the latter employing over 50,000 people,” said Kimberley.

“Another important point to keep in mind is that forex companies in Cyprus, particularly the biggest players, tend to repatriate their revenues, which they spend and invest in the local economy,” he added.

“So it’s very much within Cypriot authorities’ interest to keep this industry in Cyprus because it’s not just a big employer, it also brings a lot of money into the local economy,” Kimberley concluded.