Tied Agent

A tied agent is a firm or individual authorised to promote a regulated broker's services, introduce clients and, in some regimes, give limited advice — while the licensed broker remains fully responsible for the agent's conduct. Tied agents must normally be registered with the regulator and appear against the broker on a public register, and they are not permitted to hold client money in their own name. The model lets brokers build local distribution without every partner obtaining its own licence. For clients the distinction matters: the contract, the client-money protections and any compensation rights sit with the licensed firm, not the agent, so it is worth confirming which legal entity actually holds the trading account.