Source: cyprus-mail
Local shares help bring new investors into Cyprus markets
Investment platform Wealthyhood has recorded a five-fold increase in investors and an eight-fold rise in client assets in Cyprus between June and September 2026, with data from its partnership with the Bank of Cyprus pointing to growing interest in local shares, exchange-traded funds and accessible long-term investing.
The figures, published in ‘Wealthyhood’s Cyprus Investor Pulse 2026‘ report, cover anonymised and aggregated data from clients resident in Cyprus between June 1 and September 30, with the findings highlighting how lower entry costs and simpler account funding can encourage participation in financial markets.
Alexandros Christodoulakis, co-founder and chief executive of Wealthyhood, told the Cyprus Mail that the response from Cypriot investors had exceeded expectations in terms of the quality of their engagement.
“People in Cyprus didn’t need to be convinced that investing matters. What they were missing was a simple, trusted way to start, and once that existed, they moved quickly,” he said.
The report found that 88.6 per cent of clients who deposited money went on to buy a stock or exchange-traded fund (ETF), compared with 80.4 per cent among clients who signed up in Greece during the same period.
Christodoulakis said the company was encouraged by the extent to which customers were continuing to invest after opening their accounts, rather than simply registering and leaving the platform.
“Of those who joined in June or July and invested, 88.9 per cent were still invested on September 30,” he said.
“Seven in ten (70.3 per cent) have never sold an investment, and six in ten (59.1 per cent) made a second deposit within 30 days of their first,” Christodoulakis continued. “People are not trying the app once and walking away; they are building a habit.”
He added that four months of activity remained an early snapshot, but that the quality of engagement had been particularly encouraging.
Low entry barriers foster early activity and habit-building
The report also found that 58.4 per cent of new investors made their first investment within 7 days of signing up, while 14.4 per cent invested on the same day.
The typical first deposit was €100, while the typical first investment amounted to €55. Almost two-thirds of investors, or 64 per cent, started with €100 or less, suggesting that many were entering the market with relatively modest sums.
More than half, or 56.8 per cent, made their first investment in an ETF, which allows investors to buy into a collection of companies through a single product.
The most popular first investment was the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, accounting for 16.6 per cent of first investments, followed by Bank of Cyprus shares at 10.2 per cent.
Christodoulakis said traditional barriers to investing included high minimum investment requirements, fees that eroded smaller amounts, paperwork and complicated terminology.
“Faced with that, many people who could invest simply never start. Not because they don’t care about their future, but because the first step looks expensive, complicated and opaque,” he stated.
Wealthyhood aims to address these obstacles by allowing customers to invest in international and local markets from €1, with zero commission and fractional shares, alongside an education hub containing more than 50 guides.
The platform also offers Autopilot, an automated investing service through which users can make regular investments without having to manage each transaction manually. The typical Autopilot user invests €150 a month, according to the report.
Christodoulakis said access to financial markets needed to be accompanied by a better understanding of investment products and their risks.
“Access alone isn’t enough, though. People also need to understand what they’re buying and why, which is why education sits at the core of the app, not in a corner of it,” he said.
Investor demographics reveal mature and higher-earning profile
The report’s demographic findings challenge the assumption that investment applications primarily attract younger users.
The typical investor in Cyprus is 40 years old, works full-time and declares an annual income of between €30,001 and €50,000. The largest age group is 35 to 44, accounting for 31.7 per cent of investors, followed by those aged 45 to 54 at 25.9 per cent and those aged 25 to 34 at 25.3 per cent.
People under 30 account for 19.3 per cent of investors.
Income levels were also higher than those recorded among investors in Greece. Some 31 per cent of Cypriot investors declared annual incomes above €50,000, while 24 per cent reported incomes below €20,000, compared with 58 per cent of investors in Greece in the latter category.
Full-time employees account for 86.5 per cent of investors, while 4.7 per cent are self-employed.
Finance and insurance is the most common industry, employing 31.5 per cent of investors, followed by information technology at 10.5 per cent and the public sector at 8.1 per cent.
Nicosia district accounts for 50.5 per cent of investors, followed by Limassol at 25.6 per cent, Larnaca at 14.9 per cent, Paphos at 5.1 per cent and Famagusta at 3.9 per cent.
Christodoulakis said the available data was not yet sufficient to establish how the investor profile had changed over time or to draw reliable conclusions about customers’ previous investing experience.
However, he said the behaviour observed so far pointed towards a cautious, long-term approach, characterised by small initial investments, ETFs and limited selling.
“One number I’d like to see change: about one in six new investors is a woman. Closing that gap is one of the biggest challenges for retail investing, in Cyprus and beyond,” he said.
He added that the market was increasingly being shaped by working people seeking greater control over their long-term finances, rather than traders attempting to profit from short-term market movements.
“As cost and complexity keep falling, I expect that profile to broaden, especially to younger people and to women,” he said.
Domestic shares drive engagement alongside global ETFs
The availability of domestic shares has also helped attract investors to the platform, with the Bank of Cyprus emerging as its most-bought individual stock.
Cypriot and Greek shares became available through Wealthyhood on July 17, allowing customers to hold domestic investments alongside international stocks and ETFs.
Customers can access Bank of Cyprus shares and 8 other companies listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange, namely Vassiliko Cement, Demetra Holdings, Logicom, Cyprus Cement, Petrolina, Atlantic Insurance, Pandora Investments and GlobalWealth Group.
Within less than 3 months of the launch, 29.2 per cent of buyers had purchased at least 1 Cypriot share.
The Bank of Cyprus was bought by 35.8 per cent of stock investors, ahead of US technology company NVIDIA at 21.3 per cent and SpaceX at 12.6 per cent.
Among investors who purchased Cypriot shares, 82.6 per cent chose the Bank of Cyprus, followed by Vassiliko Cement at 16 per cent, Petrolina at 12.3 per cent and Logicom at 8.2 per cent.
The report found that domestic shares were bringing new participants into the market. For 52.8 per cent of investors holding Cypriot shares, a local company had been their first investment on Wealthyhood, compared with just 1.8 per cent among other investors.
Those holding Cypriot shares also had larger portfolios, with a typical portfolio 1.8 times the size of those held by other investors and containing 3 investments rather than 1.
Christodoulakis said familiar domestic companies could provide an accessible entry point for people who were less comfortable with international markets.
“People invest more readily in companies they know, and familiar local names are often the bridge into the market,” he said.
However, he stressed that local shares were complementing rather than replacing international investments.
The report found that 8.6 per cent of money invested since July 17 had gone into Cypriot shares, while Greek shares accounted for 12.3 per cent. Some 18.9 per cent of buyers had purchased at least 1 Greek share.
Across portfolios, 37.6 per cent of invested money was allocated to the United States, 21.1 per cent to global ETFs, 16.5 per cent to the rest of Europe, 11.3 per cent to Greece and 8.9 per cent to Cyprus.
The figures also showed the importance of ETFs in investors’ portfolios. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, which tracks the 500 largest US companies, had been purchased by 42.7 per cent of ETF investors and was held by 24.4 per cent of all investors on September 30.
Other popular ETFs included the Vanguard LifeStrategy 80 per cent Equity fund, purchased by 13.6 per cent of ETF investors, the SPDR MSCI World at 13.1 per cent and the iShares Nasdaq 100 at 11.9 per cent.
Among investors who still held investments on September 30, 42.5 per cent held only ETFs.
Dual exchange listings and long-term literacy goals
The report also examined access to shares listed in Athens. On September 30, 25.6 per cent of investors held at least 1 stock listed on Euronext Athens, including the Bank of Cyprus, while 7.6 per cent held a stock listed on the Cyprus Stock Exchange and 4.2 per cent held shares listed on both exchanges.
Athens-listed stocks accounted for 17.1 per cent of invested money, while Cyprus Stock Exchange-listed shares represented 2.1 per cent.
After the Bank of Cyprus, the most widely held Athens-listed stocks were Eurobank, at 5.1 per cent, followed by Allwyn and Alpha Bank, each at 2.8 per cent. Half of the 10 most widely held names were banks.
Christodoulakis said the company’s priorities in Cyprus were to improve financial education, encourage customers to turn initial investments into regular habits and expand the role of automated investing.
He said Wealthyhood and the Bank of Cyprus shared a responsibility to help close the financial literacy gap, particularly among younger people and women, by improving understanding of risk, diversification and the importance of time in investing.
“Giving people access to markets is only half of the job; helping them understand risk, diversification and time is the other half,” he said.
The company also wants to build on existing customer behaviour through services such as Autopilot, which can make regular investment contributions easier to maintain.
Christodoulakis said the first months of activity had demonstrated a clear appetite for accessible investing in Cyprus, but that the next challenge was to turn the initial momentum into sustained participation.
“Four months in, Cyprus has shown us the appetite is real. Now the work is to turn that early momentum into a generation of long-term investors,” he said.