Guides you can use before opening an account, explainers on how regulation works, and our own investigations and reports.
Most brokers in our directory hold a UK, EU or Australian licence and, alongside it, a company licensed in the Seychelles, the Bahamas, Vanuatu or another offshore centre. The company you sign with, not the brand, decides your protections.
Forty of the 60 brokers we cover hold a licence in Cyprus, and its regulator publishes every fine and settlement. A settlement is not a fine, a fine can be appealed, and a withdrawn licence is not always a sanction.
One trading brand can sit on top of several companies in different countries. The company named in your client agreement decides which rules, and which protections, apply to you.
A licence number on a website proves nothing until you have matched it on the regulator’s own register. Six checks, in order, that you can run before you send any money.
What the score, the confidence level, the labels and the dates on a profile mean, and just as importantly, what they do not.
A regulator’s warning, a client’s allegation, an enforcement action and a court’s final ruling carry very different weight. We label each one for what it is, and never use the word scam as a verdict.
Start with the firm, then go to the independent body that can decide your dispute. Regulators rarely settle individual complaints, and neither can we, but we do want to hear from you.