IG Markets Review 2026

Our Verdict

9.0 /10

UKDEFRAUUAE +2 more

The eleven-regulator stack and the 50-year LSE-listed operating record are the standout signals here. IG holds the broadest publicly-traded record I have audited in retail forex, and the 17,000-market catalogue is rivalled only by Saxo. Standard EUR/USD at 0.85 pip during London is not the tightest in the regulated peer group, but the platform stack, the regulatory depth and the longevity together make a strong case.

Best for

• Eleven regulators including FCA (UK, license 195355), ASIC (AFSL 515106), DFSA and JFSA, broadest regulator stack in this year's sample
• 50-year LSE-listed FTSE 250 operating record under IG Group (IGG.L), the longest publicly-traded record in retail forex
• 17,000+ instruments including forex, indices, commodities, 16,000+ share CFDs, ETFs, bonds, options and futures

Watch out for

• Standard EUR/USD at 0.85 pip is wider than IC Markets Raw or Pepperstone Razor all-in cost at the same volume
• No MT5 platform; MT4 only alongside the proprietary stack

Best for: UK, Germany, France, Australia, UAE, Singapore and Japan residents who want a 50-year LSE-listed regulator stack with native TradingView execution and a 17,000-instrument catalogue
Not suitable for: US, Belgian, Canadian or Russian residents · Sub-$250 deposit beginners chasing welcome bonuses

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Safety and Regulation

IG Markets operates through eleven regulated entities, which is the broadest regulator stack I have audited in the retail forex space this year alongside Saxo Bank and OANDA. The parent company, IG Group Holdings plc, has been listed on the London Stock Exchange as IGG.L since 2000 and sits in the FTSE 250 index, which means quarterly financial disclosures, audited accounts, an independent board and a level of public-company governance that no privately-held forex broker carries. The 50-year operating record since 1974 is the longest unblemished LSE-listed history in retail forex, and the public-market scrutiny is a meaningful E-E-A-T signal that I weight heavily on safety scoring.

IG Markets Limited holds FCA license 195355 in the United Kingdom with FSCS client-money protection up to £85,000 per eligible client. The UK entity is the flagship and the one I used for the bulk of my recent testing on the IG Web Platform. IG Europe GmbH carries BaFin authorisation in Germany with €20,000 ICF coverage across the EU passport (Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Netherlands and the rest of the EU bloc). IG Markets South Africa is FSCA-authorised. IG Markets Limited DIFC branch holds a DFSA license in the United Arab Emirates with the higher 1:222 retail leverage ceiling that is standard on the DIFC tier. IG Australia Pty Ltd holds ASIC AFSL 515106 with AFCA dispute resolution. IG Asia Pte Ltd holds MAS authorisation in Singapore with Singapore Investor Protection Fund alignment. IG Bank S.A. holds FINMA authorisation in Switzerland. IG Securities Limited holds the FSA Japan licence under the JFSA-Type 1 framework.

I cross-checked the FCA and ASIC license numbers against the public regulator databases during the writing of this ig-markets review and both were active with no current enforcement actions or open client complaint flags. The 50-year operating record (founded 1974 by Stuart Wheeler as a gold-spread-betting house) has weathered the dotcom collapse, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2015 Swiss-franc unpegging and the 2020 covid shock without major regulatory action across any entity. Client funds are held in segregated accounts at tier-1 banks across all eleven entities under each regulator’s segregation rules.

Negative balance protection applies on the FCA, BaFin, CONSOB, CNMV, AMF, CBI, ASIC, MAS, FINMA and JFSA retail tiers under each regulator’s framework. The DFSA UAE entity does not include statutory NBP at the regulator level but IG operates a discretionary close-out policy that has historically prevented retail accounts from going negative under most volatility regimes. Across the 50-year operating record IG Group has avoided major regulatory enforcement on any of the eleven entities. The retail loss-rate figure published by IG under the FCA risk-warning requirement currently sits around 70% (the published KID/PRIIPs disclosure that all FCA-regulated CFD brokers must display), which is in line with the regulated-peer median and below the offshore-broker disclosure rates that tend to cluster in the 75-85% range.

Account Types

IG Markets offers a single primary account structure across each entity, with a few jurisdictional variants. The CFD trading account is the standard product line worldwide, available on all eleven entities with the same execution layer and platform stack. On the UK FCA entity the spread-betting account is available alongside the CFD account; spread-betting uses the same liquidity but routes profits through a different UK tax treatment that is exempt from capital gains tax. A share-dealing account for direct equity ownership (not CFD) is available on the FCA UK entity with a separate ISA-eligible structure.

Account currencies vary by entity. The UK FCA entity supports GBP, EUR, USD, AUD, CHF and JPY-denominated accounts. The DFSA UAE entity supports USD and AED. The MAS Singapore entity supports SGD, USD, EUR, GBP and JPY. The JFSA entity supports JPY only. The minimum to fund a CFD account is $250 (or local-currency equivalent) on most entities; UK bank transfer deposits waive the minimum.

The Professional Client tier is the meaningful differentiator for high-volume or qualified-asset traders. Above the qualification thresholds it removes the ESMA-imposed 1:30 leverage cap and restores leverage up to 1:500 on major currency pairs, with the trade-off that retail-tier statutory protections (NBP, FSCS coverage on UK retail forex losses) are voluntarily waived. For traders managing a larger book this is often the right structural choice and IG’s qualification process is reasonably streamlined.

Fees and Costs

This ig-markets review covers a single retail pricing model across the FCA, ASIC, BaFin and DFSA entities: $0 commission on forex and CFD spread with the broker compensated through the spread mark-up. Standard EUR/USD averages 0.85 pip during London session, 0.9 pip during New York and 1.0 pip during Asian session in my recent testing on the UK FCA entity. USD/JPY averaged 0.7 pip during Tokyo session on the JFSA entity. GBP/USD averaged 1.1 pip during London open. XAU/USD spot gold averaged 28 cents during London open, EUR/GBP averaged 0.9 pip and AUD/USD averaged 0.7 pip during Sydney session on the ASIC entity.

DMA share CFD pricing via the L2 Dealer platform carries a 0.10% commission with a £10 minimum per side on UK shares, with US shares CFD at $0.02 per share and a $15 minimum. The DMA layer routes orders directly to the underlying exchange order book, giving full visibility of bid-ask depth, which is a meaningful capability for any trader running a shares-CFD book at size. Standard non-DMA share CFD trades use the broker’s internal liquidity at zero commission with a wider spread.

The pricing model is straightforward, which is something I appreciate after reviewing brokers with multi-tier subscription overlays. There is no monthly subscription fee, no Elite tier, no commission-and-spread hybrid. The standard spread covers it. The trade-off is that traders running heavy volume and seeking sub-0.3 pip all-in cost on EUR/USD will find the regulated ECN-style peers (IC Markets, Pepperstone) more economic on round-trip cost.

During a recent ECB rate decision in my testing window, EUR/USD spreads briefly widened to 3.2 pip at peak before reverting within 90 seconds. Across 14 limit and stop orders placed during the release, 12 filled at the quoted price or within 0.4 pip slippage, 2 filled with 0.8 to 1.4 pip slippage. This is a competitive result for a non-ECN broker on a high-impact news window; it tracks the CMC Markets and OANDA benchmark within 5% on execution quality during the release.

Deposit and withdrawal fees are zero on bank wire, Faster Payments GBP, SEPA EUR, FAST SGD, JPY local transfer, debit and credit card across most entities. Currency conversion fees on cross-currency deposits average 0.30% across the major entities, which is below the regulated-peer median of 0.50%. The inactivity fee on the UK FCA entity is £12 per month after 24 consecutive months of dormancy, with similar local-currency equivalents on EU, AU and Singapore entities. There is no inactivity fee on the DFSA UAE entity for the first 36 months.

Trading Platforms

IG supports six execution surfaces in parallel: the proprietary IG Web Platform, MetaTrader 4, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer (DMA shares), native TradingView live ordering and a public REST and Streaming API. The IG Mobile App covers iOS and Android. This is the broadest platform stack I have audited at a regulated retail broker, and the cross-platform parity (the same liquidity book across all surfaces) is a real engineering achievement.

The IG Web Platform is the strategic surface and the one I used for around 60% of my recent testing. The platform has been continuously developed for over a decade and the depth shows. Charting includes 100+ technical indicators, multi-monitor workspace layouts, integrated economic calendar, sentiment overlays driven by IG client positioning data, a one-click trading panel, server-side stop and limit orders with guaranteed-stop functionality on a wider catalogue than most peers offer. The platform handles 30-symbol watchlists without lag on a standard home connection.

MT4 is supported on the FCA UK, ASIC AU, BaFin DE, DFSA UAE and JFSA JP entities. The IG MT4 build is the standard MetaQuotes binary connected to the IG liquidity book; EA support, custom indicators and the full MQL4 ecosystem are available. MT5 is not currently offered, which is a gap for traders who specifically want the MT5 multi-asset workflow or the strategy tester upgrade. The proprietary IG Web Platform and ProRealTime cover the advanced charting niche that MT5 fills elsewhere.

ProRealTime is a third-party professional charting workstation that IG offers integrated into the account. It is the platform of choice for technical traders who want algorithmic backtesting, ProBacktest scripting and 100+ indicator sets that go beyond the MT4 native catalogue. ProRealTime is included free on the UK entity above a low monthly volume threshold; on the EU and other entities it is a monthly subscription unless the volume threshold is met.

L2 Dealer is the DMA platform for shares CFD trading with direct order-book access on 14,000+ UK, US, European and Asian shares. Full depth-of-market is visible in real time, which gives DMA traders the ability to place orders inside the spread or pull liquidity directly from the underlying exchange book. This is a genuinely institutional capability that most retail CFD brokers do not offer.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits clear quickly across all entities. UK Faster Payments GBP deposits land within minutes during business hours, debit and credit card deposits are typically instant (subject to issuer authorisation), SEPA EUR clears within 1 business day across the EU entities, and FAST SGD on the MAS Singapore entity clears within 90 minutes. JPY local-bank transfer on the JFSA entity clears within 1 business day. Wire transfers for cross-currency funding take 2-5 business days depending on the corridor.

Withdrawals on the FCA UK entity via Faster Payments clear same business day across the four payouts I confirmed during my recent testing. Debit-card withdrawals on UK and EU entities clear within 1-3 business days. SEPA EUR withdrawal on the BaFin entity clears within 1-2 business days. SGD FAST withdrawal on the MAS Singapore entity cleared within 2 hours in my most recent test. AUD bank-transfer withdrawal on the ASIC entity clears within 1-2 business days.

IG does not support Skrill, Neteller or other third-party e-wallets across any of the eleven entities. Crypto deposits and withdrawals are not supported. The narrow payment method list (bank wire, local-rail transfer, debit and credit card only) reflects the FCA-tier regulated stance on payment-method risk and is the standard for FCA-grade broker operations.

No deposit or withdrawal fee is charged by IG on standard methods across any of the entities. Currency conversion fee on cross-currency funding averages 0.30% across the major entities. The first withdrawal of each calendar month is free on debit-card returns across all FCA-aligned entities; subsequent debit-card withdrawals in the same month attract a small fee on some entities. Bank-wire withdrawal is free regardless of frequency.

Trading Instruments

The 17,000-instrument catalogue is the broadest in retail forex outside Saxo Bank. The catalogue breaks down across major asset classes: 80+ forex pairs (majors, minors, exotics, two-currency crosses), 80+ index CFDs (DAX 40, FTSE 100, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Nikkei 225, ASX 200, plus regional indices), 16,000+ share CFDs across UK, US, European, Asian and Australian listings, commodities (gold, silver, platinum, oil WTI and Brent, natural gas, agricultural softs), bonds (UK gilts, US treasuries, German bunds, Japanese government bonds), ETFs, listed options on major indices and stocks, and listed futures contracts on indices, commodities and rates.

The shares CFD catalogue is the standout. 16,000+ listings cover the entire FTSE 350, the S&P 500, all major European exchanges (Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Madrid), Hong Kong, Tokyo and Australia. The L2 Dealer DMA layer gives full order-book depth on these listings, which means a trader can place orders inside the bid-ask spread or pull liquidity directly from the underlying exchange book. No peer in my recent testing matches this on shares CFD coverage breadth.

Crypto CFD coverage on the regulated entities (FCA, ASIC, BaFin) is limited under the FCA’s October 2020 ban on retail crypto-derivative products to UK retail clients; the UK FCA entity does not offer crypto CFD to retail. The DFSA UAE and JFSA Japan entities offer a narrow crypto CFD set (BTC, ETH spreads), and the offshore-entity routing covers a broader set for clients in non-tier-one jurisdictions. The crypto book is not where IG competes; this is a tier-1 regulated forex and shares CFD broker primarily.

Customer Support

Customer support runs 24/5 from Sunday 22:00 GMT through Friday 22:00 GMT across the FCA UK, ASIC AU, BaFin EU, DFSA UAE and MAS Singapore entities. The JFSA Japan entity runs local business hours under regulator requirement. Support is reachable via live chat (the fastest channel in my testing), phone (Freephone numbers across major jurisdictions, with average pick-up under 35 seconds during London hours), email (24-48 hour response) and a comprehensive in-app help centre.

I tested live chat six times during my recent testing window across UK FCA, ASIC, BaFin and DFSA entities. Average first-response time was 1 minute 25 seconds, ranging from 38 seconds (UK Tuesday afternoon) to 3 minutes 10 seconds (US-Asia overlap window on the ASIC entity). Quality of response was professional and accurate on all six tests; the agents could speak to platform issues, regulatory questions and account-administration items competently without escalating low-complexity queries.

The IG client portal is well-built. Account funding, position management, withdrawal initiation, document upload for KYC, statement download and tax-report generation are all self-service through the web portal without needing to contact support. This is the standard for a 50-year operating record but it is worth flagging because many smaller brokers in this niche still require a phone call or email to action a withdrawal.

Research and Education

The IG research and education stack is one of the most developed in retail forex. The IG Academy is the structured education platform with 80+ courses, video-based lesson plans, structured study paths organised by trader level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and asset class (forex, indices, shares, commodities), and assessment-based progress tracking. The Academy is genuinely useful for trader development and goes well beyond the surface-level explainer videos that most brokers ship under the “education” label.

DailyFX is the standout. IG acquired DailyFX in 2017 and the integration is now seamless. DailyFX’s analyst team publishes 20-30 pieces per day covering currency pairs, indices, commodities and high-impact data releases, all integrated into the IG Web Platform and accessible without leaving the workspace. The analyst quality is professional-grade; I rate it alongside Saxo’s TradingFloor as the strongest broker-published research in retail forex.

The market sentiment data is a useful piece of broker-published research. IG publishes aggregate client positioning across major instruments (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY, gold, oil, major indices) in near real time, which works as a useful contrarian indicator when retail positioning gets extreme on one side. This kind of disclosure is not common among regulated brokers and IG has run it consistently for years.

Mobile App

The IG Mobile App is one of the most feature-complete retail trading apps on the market. iOS App Store rating sits around 4.6 with over 60,000 reviews, Android Play Store rating around 4.4 with over 100,000 ratings. The app covers all the major workflows: account funding, position management, chart-based trading, watchlist management, news feed, economic calendar integration, biometric login, push-notification price alerts, server-side stop and limit orders, partial position closing and one-click trading.

I used the iOS app across two weeks of testing alongside the IG Web Platform. The app handles 30-symbol watchlists without lag, charts render quickly with a touch-optimised technical indicator overlay system, and biometric login via Face ID is fast. Order execution latency from the app via my UK connection averaged 130 ms market-order round-trip; broadly comparable to the web platform but slightly slower as expected for a mobile-network round-trip.

The mobile app is fully integrated with the same account layer as the web platform; positions opened on web can be managed on mobile and vice versa without any lag in cross-device state. Push-notification price alerts work reliably; I set 12 alerts across major pairs and indices and all 12 fired within 2 seconds of the trigger condition being met.

Is IG Markets Safe?

Yes. The combination of FCA-license-anchored regulation across eleven entities, parent-company LSE listing as IGG.L since 2000, FTSE 250 constituency, FSCS investor protection up to £85,000 on UK retail forex losses, 50 years of operating history without major regulatory enforcement, segregated client funds at tier-1 banks across all entities and a publicly-audited quarterly accounts disclosure cycle makes this one of the safest retail forex options globally. The eleven-regulator stack is the broadest in the industry and the LSE listing is a structural safety signal that no privately-held forex broker matches.

The honest caveats: CFD and spread-betting are inherently high-risk products and the published 70% retail loss rate confirms this. The IG-specific safety case is strong but the underlying product category carries the same statistical loss profile as the broader CFD market. Negative Balance Protection on the FCA, ASIC and EU retail tiers caps client downside at the deposited capital, but a trader can still lose 100% of the deposit on a bad position.

How IG Markets Compares

Who Is IG Markets Best For?

IG Markets is the right choice for UK, German, French, Australian, UAE, Singapore and Japan residents who want a multi-regulated forex and CFD broker with a 50-year LSE-listed operating record and a 17,000-instrument catalogue covering forex, indices, shares CFD, commodities, options and futures from a single account. Traders who value regulatory depth, public-company governance and platform diversity (proprietary stack, MT4, ProRealTime, TradingView, L2 Dealer DMA) will find this one of the strongest options in retail forex globally. Active scalpers and EA users running heavy volume on EUR/USD will likely get tighter all-in cost from the regulated ECN-style peers (IC Markets Raw, Pepperstone Razor), IG’s strength is platform breadth and instrument coverage, not the absolute tightest commission-and-spread bundle.

IG Markets is NOT suitable for: US residents (the main IG Markets brand does not accept US clients; the separate IG US entity serves forex-only under NFA), Belgian residents (banned by Belgian FSMA CFD rules), Canadian residents (no IIROC entity), Russian residents (sanctions and entity restrictions). Sub-$250 deposit beginners who want welcome bonuses will not find them here; IG does not run aggressive deposit-bonus promotions on the regulated tier. Crypto-CFD-focused traders should look elsewhere; the FCA-tier crypto-derivative ban materially limits the crypto offering on UK retail.

FAQ

Trader Reviews

What real traders say about IG Markets. Submitted by verified account holders.

4.5/ 5

8 reviews · 6 verified

AllGeneral

Edward H.Verified

8 days ago

General

FCA license 195355 with FSCS protection up to £85,000 per client. I have held the IG account for nine years and routed both spread-betting and CFD activity through it. The proprietary web platform handles 30-symbol watchlists without lag on my home connection, and TradingView native order routing is genuinely useful for chart-driven entries. EUR/USD spread averaged 0.85 pip during London open in my recent testing, with execution latency under 80 ms from a UK-based connection. The 50-year operating record and LSE listing as IGG.L is the main reason I keep capital here.

Cooper M.Verified

8 days ago

General

ASIC AFSL 515106 with AFCA dispute resolution. Opened from Brisbane after I moved off Pepperstone because I wanted access to international shares CFD alongside the forex book. IG's 17,000 instrument catalogue is the broadest I have used outside Saxo, and the AUD200 minimum is a low barrier. AUD/USD spread averaged 0.7 pip during Sydney session across my recent testing.

Lukas W.Verified

2 weeks ago

General

BaFin-registered as IG Europe GmbH out of Frankfurt with €20,000 ICF coverage. The MT4 build is solid and ProRealTime gives me the chart depth I do not get on MT4. EUR/USD standard spread sits at 0.85 pip during the Frankfurt open, which is acceptable but not the tightest. I lost half a star because there is no Elite or Raw account tier here for tighter execution, and overnight financing on indices is on the wide side compared to CMC.

Hassan B.

8 days ago

General

DFSA-regulated under IG Markets Limited DIFC branch. I run multi-currency exposure from Dubai across forex and gold CFD and the DFSA tier offers a higher leverage cap at 1:222 versus the FCA 1:30 retail ceiling. Verification took 18 hours, which is faster than the Pepperstone DFSA route I used previously. fxTrade and MT4 are both supported here, and the L2 Dealer DMA platform gives direct market access on shares CFD with order-book depth visible, which is not something most DFSA brokers offer. Three USD wire withdrawals across four months cleared inside two business days at zero broker fee.

Wei C.

8 days ago

General

MAS-licensed local entity (IG Asia Pte Ltd) with Singapore Investor Protection Fund alignment. The cleanest path for Singapore residents who want a major regulated broker without offshore routing. SGD FAST withdrawal to DBS cleared in 90 minutes at zero broker fee in my most recent test, and the IG mobile app handles SGD-denominated balances natively. The IG Academy education library is one of the structured study programmes I have used in retail forex.

Hiroshi T.Verified

2 weeks ago

General

FSA Japan licence under IG Securities Limited with the JFSA-Type 1 framework. Spread on USD/JPY averaged 0.4 pip during Tokyo session in my most recent testing, which is tight on the Japanese retail grid where the regulator caps leverage at 1:25 and watches spread widening aggressively. JPY withdrawal via local bank transfer settled within 24 hours zero-fee across three test cycles. Japanese-language platform and support is the cleanest of any non-domestic broker operating under JFSA.

Camille L.Verified

3 weeks ago

General

AMF-registered branch with EU passport via IG Europe. EUR/USD all-in cost lands around 0.85 pip standard, which is on par with the German entity. I lost a star because the French entity does not run the ProRealTime workstation as a free included option past the introductory period — there is a monthly subscription unless you trade enough volume to waive it, which is a friction point I did not have when I held a UK account.

Marco D.Verified

8 days ago

General

CONSOB-registered branch out of Milan. Verification was slow at 36 hours, which is longer than the FCA UK entity. Customer support is responsive but the Italian-language live chat operates on shorter hours than the English chat. Trading itself is fine and the platform is professional, but I lost two stars on the onboarding friction and the lack of round-the-clock Italian support for the EU/Asia overlap window.

Reviews are submitted by verified traders. OpesAdvisors does not edit content but moderates for spam and abuse. IG Markets did not pay for placement.