Rock-West

Rock-West is a forex and CFD broker operated by MAIV Limited, a Seychelles company listed with Securities Dealer Licence SD044 from the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA). The licence identifies a regulated entity and its regulator. It does not come with an investor compensation scheme, and it does not bring the retail leverage caps of EU or UK rules: Rock-West offers up to 1:2000 on forex. The main open points are:

• the entity’s offshore status
• inconsistent statements about negative balance protection
• withdrawal fees and bonus terms that depend on trading activity

Who Operates Rock-West

Rock-West runs its client-facing service at rock-west.com. The licensed entity is MAIV Limited, registered in Seychelles, with this listed address:

• IMAD Complex, Office 4, Unit 208, 1st Floor, Ile Du Port, Mahe, Seychelles

The Rewalt name also appears in the broker’s materials, and legal documentation is published on both rock-west.com and rewalt.com. A brand name carries no legal weight by itself. The entity that matters is the one named in the client agreement you accept at sign-up. If that document names MAIV Limited and licence SD044, it matches the licence record. If it names a different company, that company’s authorization has to be checked separately.

Third-party coverage describes Rock-West as a relatively new broker with an offshore structure aimed at international clients. It offers high leverage, quick account setup and a simple product range rather than institutional-grade infrastructure.

The same coverage states that Rock-West does not accept residents or citizens of the United States, where retail forex is restricted to firms registered with the CFTC and NFA. It also notes limited public information about ownership and corporate structure, and no audited financial disclosures. That limits what a client can learn about who owns MAIV Limited or how much capital it holds.

Regulation and Licence

Rock-West’s authorization comes from one regulator, the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles, which lists MAIV Limited under Securities Dealer Licence SD044. The FSA supervises non-bank financial institutions in Seychelles, including forex and CFD brokers serving clients abroad. Third-party reviewers class Seychelles as an offshore (Tier-3) jurisdiction. Its requirements are less strict than those of Tier-1 regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

To confirm the record, search the FSA’s public register for the licence number and entity name. Then compare the registered name and address with the company named in Rock-West’s legal documents. A match ties the website to the licensed company. A mismatch means the licence record does not cover the company you would be dealing with. A licence shown as revoked or suspended means the entity is not currently authorized to operate. The forex broker regulation check guide covers how to verify a broker on a regulator’s register.

Our check of the official site and regulator registers on Nov 8, 2026 found no regulator warnings. One third-party review states that certain regulatory bodies have issued warnings advising caution when dealing with the broker in specific jurisdictions, without naming them. Because warnings are issued country by country, the relevant check is your own national regulator’s warning list, searched for both “Rock-West” and “Rewalt.”

What the Seychelles FSA Licence Covers

A Securities Dealer Licence authorizes MAIV Limited to provide trading services under Seychelles law. That is the basis on which Rock-West offers CFDs to international clients. Holding it means:

• The company is known to a regulator and has met that regulator’s licensing requirements.
• The regulator can supervise, sanction or revoke the licence.
• There is a named legal entity a client can pursue in a dispute.

It does not mean:

• The firm is solvent today or will remain so.
• Withdrawals will be processed promptly or at all.
• Losses from a firm failure would be compensated.
• Clients in other countries are protected by their home regulator. A client onboarded by a Seychelles entity is generally a client of that entity under Seychelles rules, wherever they live.

The retail leverage caps that apply to EU and UK firms do not apply to this entity, and Rock-West offers up to 1:2000.

Client Protections

Rock-West describes several standard measures:

• Segregated client funds. Client money is held apart from the company’s operating accounts. This keeps client balances from being used for business expenses and makes them easier to identify if the firm fails. It does not guarantee the money is all there: without audited financial disclosures, a client cannot verify that segregated balances match what the firm owes clients.
• KYC and AML procedures. These are identity checks at sign-up and anti-money-laundering controls on deposits and withdrawals. They are also why withdrawals must go to an account in the same name as the trading account.
• Payment security. 3D Secure on card payments and PCI DSS compliance, a card industry standard for handling card data. These protect card details during payment. They have no bearing on the safety of money once it sits with the broker.
• Negative balance protection. Some sources say the broker promotes it, but third-party reviewers report that it is not consistently confirmed across the legal documentation. EU and UK retail rules make it mandatory per account. Here, the client agreement is the document that decides whether a negative balance can become a debt.

What is absent:

• No investor compensation scheme. If the firm becomes insolvent and client money is short, no fund pays clients back. Eligible clients of UK firms, by contrast, can claim from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), up to £85,000 per person per firm for investments.
• No Tier-1 oversight. No UK, EU or Australian regulator supervises this entity.
• Weaker dispute recourse. A complaint about MAIV Limited goes to the broker, then to the Seychelles FSA or the Seychelles courts. A client living elsewhere cannot take a dispute with this entity to a domestic ombudsman.

On transparency, the broker discloses its FSA licence, publishes terms and conditions and describes its execution model in general terms. Reviewers also report inconsistencies in published policies, and the negative balance protection wording is one example.

Is Rock-West Safe to Trade With?

No single fact settles this. Each piece of evidence answers a narrower question:

Together, these describe an operating broker with an offshore licence record. Its protection framework falls well short of what an FCA, CySEC or ASIC entity provides. The risk that stays open is counterparty risk: whether the company can and will return client money under stress. Neither the licence nor a review score answers that.

Account Types and Trading Conditions

Rock-West runs two live accounts, Standard and RAW, plus a demo account and a swap-free option. Both live accounts use the same platform and instrument list. They differ in pricing, minimum deposit and leverage.

Standard carries all costs in the spread, from 1.4 pips with no commission, and opens from $50. Third-party coverage adds that it has a 0.01 lot minimum trade size and supports copy trading. It offers a swap-free version on request and is the account eligible for the welcome bonus.

RAW opens from $250 and pairs spreads from 0.0 pips with an $8 commission per lot. It also trades from 0.01 lot and is described as offering ECN-style execution with direct liquidity access. It is excluded from the bonus.

Islamic (swap-free) account. Available on request, mainly on the Standard account. It removes overnight swap and rollover charges for traders who need Sharia-compliant terms.

Demo account. Uses virtual funds (third-party reviews cite a $10,000 balance) and can mirror Standard or RAW conditions. It is a place to learn the platform and test order handling. It shows nothing about how the live entity handles withdrawals.

Third-party reviews report that scalping, hedging and automated trading through Expert Advisors are permitted without restriction.

Spreads, Commissions and Leverage

Pricing models. On Standard, the whole cost sits in the spread. On RAW, the spread starts lower and a commission is added. Third-party coverage describes the $8 per lot as round turn: it covers opening and closing one lot together, not $8 on each side. Reading it as per side would double the commission estimate.

Take one standard lot of EUR/USD, where one pip is worth $10 (a labeled example):

Both spreads are “from” figures, the lowest the broker quotes. Spreads are variable and move with liquidity, so real costs on either account sit at or above these levels. Wider spreads are more likely around news releases and outside the main sessions. The $8 commission equals 0.8 pips on one lot. RAW therefore stays cheaper on a given trade as long as its spread is more than 0.8 pips tighter than the Standard spread.

Other trading costs. Indices and commodities are priced through the spread. Some crypto instruments carry raw spreads or a percentage fee of about 0.05%. Share CFDs, according to the broker’s stocks page, carry a 0.15% commission with leverage up to 1:10.

Execution. Rock-West describes an A-Book/STP model that routes orders to external liquidity providers without dealing desk intervention. Under market execution, orders fill at the next available price, so slippage can occur in fast markets. A stop-loss triggered at one level can be filled at a worse one.

Overnight costs. Positions held past the daily cutoff are charged or credited swap. The rate depends on the instrument, the position direction and market interest rates. Third-party reviewers note that swap rates on some instruments can be higher than industry averages.

Non-trading fees. Third-party coverage reports no deposit fees, no broker-side withdrawal fees under standard conditions and no account maintenance fee. No inactivity fee applies in most cases, according to the same coverage, though some sources mention a $10 annual fee after a long dormant period. Banks, card issuers and payment providers may charge their own fees, including currency conversion.

Leverage. Maximum leverage depends on the account and asset class. It ranges from 1:2000 on Standard forex (1:1000 on RAW) down to 1:10 on crypto on both accounts.

Leverage sets how much margin a position needs. It does not change how much the position gains or loses per pip. Margin required = notional value ÷ leverage.

For a labeled example, assume EUR/USD at a hypothetical 1.1000 and one standard lot (€100,000, or $110,000 notional):

• At 1:2000, required margin is $110,000 ÷ 2000 = $55
• At 1:1000, required margin is $110,000 ÷ 1000 = $110
• A 0.5% adverse move on $110,000 is a $550 loss at either leverage

A $50 Standard deposit falls short of the $55 margin for even one lot at 1:2000. A 0.1 lot position needs only $5.50 of margin, yet the same 0.5% move costs $55, more than the whole deposit. High leverage lets a small account open a large position. It does not let that account absorb the position’s losses.

Whether a loss beyond the balance becomes a debt depends on the negative balance protection terms described above. A position size calculator sizes trades from the amount at risk rather than from the maximum leverage on offer.

Tradable Instruments

Rock-West lists roughly 230 to 250 instruments, all traded as CFDs, with the range weighted toward forex and crypto.

Forex. Majors such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY, minor crosses such as EUR/GBP and AUD/CAD, and a selection of exotic pairs.

Cryptocurrencies. The largest category, with more than 150 crypto pairs. These include Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ethereum (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD), Ripple (XRP/USD), many smaller altcoins and crypto cross pairs.

Leverage on crypto is capped at 1:10 on both accounts, far below the forex maximum. Crypto price swings mean 1:10 can still produce large losses relative to account equity. A crypto CFD is a price contract: you do not own the underlying coin, and the position is a claim against MAIV Limited.

Indices. A limited set covering the US (S&P 500, NASDAQ, Dow Jones), Europe (Germany 40) and Asia (Japan 225).

Commodities. Gold (XAU/USD), silver (XAG/USD), WTI and Brent crude, and natural gas, tradable long or short.

Shares. Share CFD availability is limited and inconsistent across account types and regions. Traders who want broad equity exposure will find little here.

Trading Platforms

The account pages we read on 13 November 2026 list the RW Mobile App as the trading platform. It supports both account types and all instruments and comes in three forms:

• Desktop terminal: multi-timeframe charting, built-in indicators, depth of market, advanced order types and Expert Advisors for automated trading.
• WebTrader: MT5 in a browser, with no installation, real-time charts, full order entry and account management on any operating system.
• Mobile apps: the official MT5 app for iOS and Android, with live quotes, interactive charts and indicators, position management and alerts.

MT5 is a third-party platform licensed to many brokers. The software is common to all of them, but the price feed, execution and the server’s trade records sit with MAIV Limited. The platform’s quality says nothing about the financial standing of the firm behind it.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Funding methods cover crypto and traditional payments, with availability depending on the client’s region:

• Cryptocurrencies, including USDT and 99+ digital assets
• Binance Pay and crypto gateways such as Binance Connect and KuCoin
• Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards
• Bank transfers via SWIFT and SEPA
• Local bank payments and regional payment systems
• Payment agents in selected countries

Deposits. The broker charges no deposit fees. Third-party coverage gives a minimum deposit from $20 depending on the payment method, while the account minimums are $50 for Standard and $250 for RAW. Crypto, card and digital-payment deposits are described as instant. Local bank payments are instant or follow local processing times, and SEPA and SWIFT transfers take one to two business days.

Withdrawals. The reported rules:

• Minimum withdrawal is $20.
• Withdrawals must go to a payment account in the same name as the trading account, under AML rules.
• The broker states that withdrawals are often processed within 15 minutes to one hour after approval, depending on the method. Approval is a separate step, and the stated window does not include it.
• The broker states there is no commission for withdrawing profits to a card and that third-party transaction fees are covered.

Third-party coverage qualifies the no-fee position. A withdrawal fee may be charged when minimum trading volume requirements are not met, calculated as a percentage of the deposit volume. Third-party processing fees may also apply depending on the method.

The broker’s own wording covers card withdrawals of profits. It does not settle the cost of withdrawing deposited funds or using other methods. Neither the volume threshold nor the percentage appears in the available terms summaries, so the fee schedule in the live terms sets what withdrawing a lightly traded deposit costs.

Crypto transfers carry a specific risk. Card payments can sometimes be disputed through the card issuer’s chargeback process. A confirmed blockchain transfer is final, so a disputed crypto withdrawal depends entirely on the broker.

Bonus Terms

Rock-West advertises a 100% welcome bonus on the Standard account, up to $10,000. The terms reported in third-party coverage:

• Minimum qualifying deposit: $100
• Maximum bonus: $10,000
• Not available on RAW accounts
• Cryptocurrency CFDs are not eligible for rebates

Assume the bonus is a simple 100% match (a labeled example). A $500 deposit would receive a $500 bonus, and a $10,000 deposit would reach the cap. Anything deposited above $10,000 would add no further bonus.

If bonus credit counts toward equity for margin purposes, it lets an account open larger positions or hold losing positions longer. With leverage up to 1:2000, that can enlarge losses on the client’s own deposit rather than cushion them.

The bonus terms on rock-west.com are the document that sets three things:

• when bonus funds can be withdrawn
• whether the bonus is removed when deposited funds are withdrawn
• how the bonus is treated in a margin call

Any trading-volume condition attached to the bonus would be separate from the volume condition on withdrawal fees, and both could apply to the same account.

Customer Support

Rock-West offers support through:

• Live chat on the website
• Email at [email protected], for account and technical questions
• Contact form on the website

Support is available during trading hours for an international client base and covers account setup, platform use and general trading questions. Third-party reviewers list narrow educational content among the broker’s weaknesses.

Written channels leave a record. Withdrawal requests, bonus questions and disputes are better raised by email than chat, because documented exchanges make a later complaint to the Seychelles FSA easier to support.

Reviews and Reputation

Rock-West has a Trustpilot rating of 4.5 from 801 reviews. That is Trustpilot’s own metric: the average star score of reviews posted on that platform, which companies can invite customers to leave. It shows that a sizeable number of reviewers rated their experience favorably. It does not show what proportion of withdrawals succeeded, how complaints were resolved or the firm’s financial position.

For Rewalt reviews, the individual reviews say more than the average. The useful ones describe withdrawal timing, any fees applied on withdrawal, bonus removal and account verification. How the company responds to negative reviews is also worth reading. Older reviews should be read against the current terms, since fees and bonus conditions can change.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Licensed entity named and identifiable: MAIV Limited, FSA Seychelles SD044
• Low minimum deposit ($50 Standard, $250 RAW)
• Choice between spread-only and raw-spread-plus-commission pricing
• More than 150 crypto pairs, a large range for a CFD broker
• No broker-side deposit or withdrawal fees under standard conditions
• Full MT5 suite with Expert Advisors, WebTrader and mobile apps
• Scalping, hedging and automated trading permitted
• Swap-free and demo accounts available
• Wide range of crypto and local funding methods

Cons

• Offshore regulation only, with no Tier-1 oversight
• No investor compensation scheme
• Negative balance protection inconsistently stated across legal documents
• Leverage up to 1:2000, far above EU and UK retail caps
• Withdrawal fees can apply when trading volume requirements are not met
• Limited public information on ownership; no audited financial disclosures
• Limited share CFDs and narrow educational content
• Not available to US residents or citizens

How we checked Rock-West

We visited rock-west.com on 13 November 2026, connecting from Tallinn, Estonia. The homepage carried the title “Rock-West | A global A-Book CFD broker.” We scrolled to the footer. It names MAIV LIMITED as a Securities Dealer registered in Seychelles with registration number 8425341-1, authorized by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) with license number SD044. The footer also says that a company with a registered office in Guildford, England, acts as an independent agent on behalf of MAIV LIMITED. We then opened the Regulation page, which repeats licence SD044, and the legal documents page. We saw no risk warning on the pages we read.

Prices and account rules were public, with no login needed to read them. The Standard account page lists a $50 minimum deposit, spreads from 1.4 pips and $0 commission. RAW starts at $250, with spreads from 0.0 pips and $8 per lot. Forex leverage is advertised at 1:2000. The fees page promises zero withdrawal fees, then adds that special conditions apply. That caveat matters. We did not open an account, so we saw nothing past the public pages.

On the same day we searched the FSA Seychelles list of regulated capital-markets entities. Under the Securities Dealer tab, an entry for MAIV LIMITED appeared, listing the website rewalt.com and the email [email protected]. That confirms the entity is on the regulator’s list and ties it to the Rewalt name. The public list does not show licence numbers, though, so we could not match SD044 to the entry.

When we read Trustpilot on 13 November 2026, Rock-West scored 4.5/5 from 801 reviews, with 76% five-star and 4% one-star. The company has claimed the profile and replied to 6 of the 8 newest reviews. The domain was registered on 2019-10-07. Its first Wayback Machine capture dates from 2003-02-21, which probably predates the current brand. We could not verify how withdrawals work in practice, or exactly which conditions trigger a withdrawal fee, because we made no deposit or withdrawal.

How Rock-West Compares With Regulated Alternatives

The comparison table lists AvaTrade and Exness alongside Rock-West. For safety, the question is which legal entity would open your account and which protections apply to that entity, not how many licences a group holds. A group with entities in several countries places each client with one of them, and that entity’s rules govern the account. A client of a group’s offshore subsidiary has offshore protections, whatever licences the group holds elsewhere.

With Rock-West there is one entity, MAIV Limited under the Seychelles FSA. It offers segregated client funds as stated by the broker, no compensation scheme, negative balance protection that is inconsistently stated, and leverage up to 1:2000.

An account with an entity regulated in the UK or EU operates under rules that include:

• Leverage caps for retail clients: 1:30 on major forex pairs and lower on other assets. In the EU, crypto CFDs are capped at 1:2, while the UK bans the sale of crypto derivatives to retail clients.
• Mandatory negative balance protection per account for retail clients
• Compensation schemes: the FSCS in the UK (up to £85,000 per person per firm for investment claims) and the Investor Compensation Fund in Cyprus (up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients)
• Restrictions on bonuses and incentives for retail CFD clients
• Domestic dispute routes, such as the UK’s Financial Ombudsman Service

ASIC-regulated entities in Australia also cap retail leverage and require negative balance protection. Australia has no general compensation scheme for CFD brokers.

The same rules exclude what Rock-West offers retail clients. A trader who wants 1:2000 leverage or a 100% deposit bonus will not get either from a UK, EU or Australian entity as a retail client. A trader whose priority is recourse and compensation if the broker fails gets neither from the offshore entity.

Whichever broker you compare, the checks are the same:

1. Identify the exact entity named in the client agreement for your country of residence.
2. Confirm that entity’s licence on the regulator’s own register.
3. Check which compensation scheme, if any, covers that entity’s clients.
4. Read the negative balance protection, withdrawal fee and bonus terms in that entity’s documents.