Forex brokers must be registered and authorised with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to operate in the United Kingdom.
The FCA is a reputed regulator with strict scrutiny measures, which means that brokers regulated by the FCA are considered safe. The authority is very vigilant and actively warns non-compliant traders in the industry, and even fines and suspends the licenses of many companies that violate the authorities stick code of conduct.
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The FCA also offers a compensation scheme that protects investors’ deposits in case a broker goes bankrupt, allows maximum leverage of 30:1 to retail traders, and negative balance protection is mandatory.
The following is a list of 5 of the best FCA regulated brokers in the UK:
CMC Markets
CMC Markets is lauded for the best web platform and most currency pairs to trade.
Headquartered in London, CMC Markets is a publicly-listed broker, with excellent trading conditions and competitive spreads. The broker allows deposit and withdrawals with all major channels and does not charge fees for these services.
CMC Markets offers good quality educational resources and a customer support team, making it the best overall FCA-regulated forex broker in the United Kingdom.
XM
XM is an FCA-regulated broker with a well-maintained reputation and offers excellent educational resources, a good analysis of the markets, in-house research, trading ideas, technical summaries, and much more. XM offers trading on MT4 and MT5, to trade a good range of products with no limits in trading conditions. XM also has an excellent customer support team. Read XM broker reviews here.
IG Group
The IG Group is an authorised financial service provider regulated by the FCA and listed on the London Stock Exchange. IG Group gives access to opportunities across thousands of financial markets and has accumulated several awards during its years of service to traders.
With regulation from the FCA and ASIC and as the winner of the Broker of the Year 2018 (UK Forex Awards) and Best CFD Provider 2017 (Investment and Wealth Management Awards), IG Markets is a safe choice for traders.
XTB
XTB is an English forex broker company offering trading of more than 1500 global markets and regulated by several international authorities including the FCA. All other countries where XTB has branches also have their own regulating authorities.
XTB has earned numerous awards since it was first started for example: Best CFD broker and Highest Rated FX & CFD Broker in 2018 at the Wealth and Finance awards, and Best CFD Broker in 2017 at the FinTech Awards.
FXPro
FxPro is a world leading online forex and CFD broker offering trading with 6 different asset classes and over 260 different financial instruments.
The brokerage was established in 2006 and has since asserted itself as a leader in the forex space with the creation of offices in London, Cyprus and the Bahamas and customers from over 170 countries.
FxPro UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA and offers the industry standard MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platforms. Spreads are competitive but depend mostly on the type of trading account and asset traded.
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