The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) proposed a tiered risk-based approach to leverage as a permanent national measure for investor protection. The Cypriot regulator intends to introduce stricter leverage limits for retail clients falling within the ‘grey area’ (1:20), and providing slightly higher leverage ratios than ESMA’s for those falling within the upper tier of the positive target market (1:50). In order to classify for the upper ties, clients are required to have either a gross annual income exceeding €40 000 or net liquid assets of at least €200,000.