In many ways similar to the situation that used to be in Cyprus, Malta has also long been popular as a place for forex & CFD brokers to set up office in. In addition to forex brokerages, however, Malta has also long had a reputation as a haven for online casinos and other gambling-related businesses.
Today, the days of Malta being some kind of a wild west for financial firms and forex brokers are over. Malta is now a part of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), which has recently issued new and stricter regulations for all forex brokers. For example, this means that leverage on stock CFDs is now limited to just 1:5, and on major FX pairs the same limit is 1:30.