The best forex brokers in the UK are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) offering the leading forex trading platforms from MetaTrader 4 to cTrader, low CFDs spreads from 0.0 pips on EUR/USD currency pairs and a range of financial services from currency, ETFs to cryptocurrencies.
View The UK forex brokers below based on fees, features and more.
By Justin Grossbard / Updated: Wednesday, December 11th, 2019
Top 5 UK Forex Brokers
The best forex broker in the UK with FCA regulation for each forex trading category are:
Pepperstone – Overall Best UK Forex Broker
Swissquote – Best No Commission Account
eToro – Best Social/Copy Trading
IG – Best Range Of Forex Trading Platforms
City Index – Best Beginner Forex Trading Broker
Every forex broker in the UK recommended on this page is listed on the Financial Conduct Authority FCA register. This was called the Financial Services Authority (FSA) prior to 2013 after which the Banking Reform Act reformed the authority. You can view the full list of FCA regulated brokers at the bottom of this page.
Pepperstone Limited trades in the UK under FCA license 684312 and has:
Low forex and CFD trading fees
The choice of Metatrader 4 + 5 and cTrader forex platform
Strong customer service
Pepperstone Has Best Lowest Spreads + Commission Account
There are two accounts offered by Pepperstone with the award-winning razor account having the lowest fees. This is achieved by combining spreads in-line with an ECN broker from 0.0 pips for the EUR/USD plus a commission. That commission is £2.29 per lot for those who use MetaTrader and £3.50 for those who select the cTrader forex platform. This Pepperstone Razor account a shown below is recommended for advanced traders, algorithmic traders and scalpers.
To further reduce costs there is an active trader program which for high volume traders can reduce commission by 15%. This can be even higher when trading forex at very high volumes. Ignoring this program and just looking at the standard commissions, below compares Pepperstone to similar UK ecn broker equivalent accounts.
EUR/USD Spreads From
Commission
Minimum Deposit
Pepperstone
0.0
£2.29
£200
London Capital Group
0.0
£2.35
£0
Valutrades
0
£2.35
£50
ThinkMarkets
0.0
£2.50
£500
AxiTrader
0.0
£2.74
$200 USD
Vantage
0.0
£2.74
£268
Price Markets
0.2
£2.74
£391
Tera Fx
0.2
£2.74
£100
XTB
0.1
£3.00
£250
Forex.com
0.4
£4.64
£50
It should be noted that are no deposit or withdrawal fees charged by Pepperstone. The only charges may be financial institutions (such as banks) for the movement of funds. The minimum deposit is £200 to open a forex trading account which is low for such a low spread and commission account.
Pepperstone is an award-winning FX online broker that offer low spreads with ultra-fast execution speeds. The broker 'Standard account' has spreads from 1 pip with no commissions and a 'Razor account' with spreads from 0.0 EUR/USD and commission of £4.59 with MetaTrader and £7.00 for cTrader platform. Users have a wide choice of CFD, hedging, scalping and expert advisors.
Pepperstone Offers The Leading Forex Trading Platforms
Pepperstone offers the best forex trading platforms that are now propriety to Pepperstone. As these popular forex platforms are offered by a number of other top forex brokers in the UK it makes it easier to switch brokers if required. It also means there are more participants in marketplaces for elements such as trading programs increasing choice when trading forex.
1) MetaTrader 4 Trading Platforms
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is globally the most popular forex trading platform based on its:
Easy to use interface
Fast execution speed
Expert Advisor automated trading
2) MetaTrader 5 Trading Platform
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) focuses on traders looking for a range of market (not just forex) offering:
Increased technical (33) and analytical indicators (44)
The ability to trade Share CFDs
Advanced charting in real-time and live news feeds
3) cTrader Trading Platform
Inter-bank (London) direct access for automated fx trading
Personalisation options across the interface and detachable charts
Backtesting options for automated programs (marketplace and custom)
What makes Pepperstone standout against other UK forex brokers is their ECN broker like forex platform execution speeds. Most forex orders are executed below ~30ms*, ideal for automated or high volume traders. This is achieved through EDGE which for MT4 is:
Faster – 10x latency reduction and 12x improvement in execution speed thanks to optical fibre connections to the New York interbank servers. Pepperstone also uses the Equinix servers next to Wall Street where 60+ exchanges, over 150 financial service providers and over 40 buy/sell firms are located.
Smarter – PPI (Price Improvement Technology) gets optimal prices by routing to market hot-spots. This is displayed in the forex platform showing liquidity and the market order book.
Tighter – Improved interbank connectivity plus dark pool liquidity means tighter spreads starting at 0.0 for the EUR/USD currency pairing.
Pepperstone Has Award-Winning Customer Support
Pepperstone is one of the most awarded UK forex brokers when it comes to customer support. This includes the “best forex trading support” at the UK Forex Awards and “best forex trading support – Europe” at the Global Forex Awards. They also multi-award winners with Investment Trends which is a survey sent to real forex traders annually.
The UK support offering customer service is based at:
Pepperstone Limited 70 Gracechurch St London, UNITED KINGDOM EC3V 0HR
Customer service for forex traders is offered from this office and their satellite offices include:
Phone Support
Live Chat
E-mail Support
Overall, the combination of outstanding customer support, low trading costs, the choice of the most popular forex trading platforms and fast execution speeds which is why we rated Pepperstone the best forex broker in the UK.
The overall rating is based on review by our experts
9.17
Spreads
10 / 10
Leverage
10 / 10
Trading Platform
10 / 10
Risk Management
7 / 10
Range of Markets
8 / 10
Customer Service
10 / 10
Best No Commission Account = Swissquote
There are two entities in Europe when it comes to Swissquote. The first is Swissquote Bank Ltd and as a Switzerland licenced bank, it has a range of financial instruments and markets. Swissquote Bank Ltd is not FCA regulated and rather is licenced by FINMA. Swissquote Ltd is FCA regulated and focuses primarily on CFD trading across, forex, energy commodities, metals, bonds derivates trading and stock indices. Swissquote Ltd has an office in the United Kingdom (UK) with its brokerage division (not bank branch).
Spread Only Forex Accounts Offered By Swissquote
Swissquote offers two spread only accounts which both have zero commissions. The most popular prime forex account has the lowest spreads but does require a higher minimum deposit of €5,000. The overall forex trading (also known as foreign exchange) feature of this forex account are:
Spreads from 0.6 pips
No commissions on trading
15 currencies to trade (including GBP, EUR, USD)
Negative balance protection
Some example Prime account minimum spreads include:
USD/JPY = 0.6
EUR/USD = 1.0
GBP/USD = 1.0
AUD/USD = 1.0
EUR/GBP = 1.2
Swissquote also offers two commission accounts offers an elite forex trading account that has the highest minimum deposit of €10,000. This account is a commission plus spread account which means that spreads are lower (from 0.0 pips) but a €2.5 per side, per lot, is charged.
Another key feature of Swissquote forex trading accounts is they all offer negative balance protection. This means that losses for a trader cannot exceed their deposit. This has been known to occur during extreme trading events with leverage leading to large losses which for some other brokers needs to be repaid.
Stock Indices And Bonds
As an indicator of an economy’s health, stock indices help traders benefit from broad movements in markets. Example of indices are the #SP500 which is the market-weighted top 500 US shares while the #NAS100 focuses on the top 100 technology and bio-technology shares from Amazon to Facebook. The #DE30 focuses on the top 30 shares on the Frankfurt Exchange while the #SMI focuses on the smaller Swiss market.
Swissquote offers indices in two different formats: the FORWARD contract which replicates the Future with the same tick value, the same expirations date and no cost for a position taken overnight, with the advantage of a micro contract available (0.01). On the other hand, the SPOT or CASH contract reflects the futures price with a convenient tick value of $1 or €1, a minimum tradable size of 1 lot, overnight costs but no expirations and tighter spreads than the Forward contract. These two options are designed to respond to daily and long term traders.
Bonds, on the other hand, are viewed historically as a risk management tool. Leverage helps magnify these relatively small movements which are primarily influenced by interest rate movements. Many traders based on this use bonds as part of their hedging strategy. The primary bonds are the US Treasure Bonds (US T-Bond), Gilts issued by the British government (UK Long Gilt) and the Bund which focuses on obligations (long-term) of the German government (German Bund).
Training Across All Markets
What makes Swissquote one of the best brokers is their education across their range of markets including online training (including videos), online seminars and offline training across Europe. Below shows an example of videos created by Swissquote to educate traders on forex markets. There are a variety of local and toll numbers for those are travelling or trying to reach us from abroad such as Cyprus which the number is 800 96595.
Swissquote is an international multi-asset broker with a choice of accounts with different entry points to cater for trader wishing to trade a wide range of trading instruments (bonds, CFDs, commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies). Swissquotes offers commission-free trading with 3 award-winning trading platforms, multilingual customer support and automated trading.
eToro (UK) Ltd is FCA regulated and unique to the other forex brokers in the UK with a focus on:
Social Trading
Investing
CFD Trading
Social Trading
eToro created CopyTrader which allows individuals to copy the best traders in the United Kingdom and around the world. When you choose a broker their traders get copied and inserted into your account. This can be then managed in a transparent and simple way. Below shows an example of the social investor’s section of the site. You can allocate a set proportion of your existing funds to copy his or her portfolio. The person you’re copied also receives a small incentive from eToro for the more followers they receive.
It should be noted that copy trading is the most popular feature of eToro. They have over 3,000,000+ active traders worldwide providing a plethora of choice when it comes to copying a portfolio. This is assisted through filters based on returns, number of copiers and what markets they like to trade such as Bitcoin and other cryptos. Another option shown below is market portfolios, trader portfolios and partner portfolios which combines traders, top performance assets or specific strategies.
Stockbroking
eToro offers UK residences with a zero commission stockbroking service. This means there are no commissions on shares in markets across the world from the UK, Hong Kong to the USA. There are no limited on the amount traded and free stock analysis from a team of experts.
While there are no commissions there are fees when it comes to trading shares with eToro. These include conversion fees for most UK residences as the eToro platform uses USD. This means transferring your GBP to eToro for share trading has some currency conversion charges. Then there is a withdrawal fee which is $25 USD. Again, this should be factored into the cost when comparing with other share trading services.
CFD Trading
If you’re more familiar with traditional CFD products you can start trading with eToro across shares, commodities, currencies, indices and EFTs. Leverage for retail UK traders is up to 30:1 which is the maximum set by the FCA. If you qualify for a professional account this can be increased by up to 400:1 leading to a high-risk environment. If trading with either a retail or professional account trying the free demo account first before a high-risk live account is recommended.
As mentioned earlier, eToro has UK regulation as it does with Europe and Australia:
Rapidly growing eToro differs from other brokers due to its emphasis on social and mirror trading. This broker has a proprietary platform purpose-built to make clients copy-trading experience simple. Users can use social media and copy features to create trade Crypto Shares CFD and Commodities and to enhance their reputation in order to earn money.
IG provides a range of retail CFD accounts focuses on retail investors who want to trade forex. The retail investor accounts offer a range of forex platforms including:
L2 Dealer
ProRealTime
MT4
IG’s own forex platform
Each of the forex trading platforms shown above also come with mobile solutions including a trading app. This allows you to trade forex on-the-go with the core functions needed for a smaller screen. IG also offers spread betting that can have tax benefits for UK residences.
Founded in 1974, IG is one of the oldest and biggest online trading brokers in the market. While most brokers offer forex and CFD, IG is one of the few that also offer stocks. IG offers commission-free FX trading for OTC traders with fees starting from 0.6pips (EUR/USD), good range of risk management tools and large choice of trading platforms.
City Index is the best UK forex broker for beginner forex traders based on their low spread only account. Below compares City Index to comparable spread only CFD brokers that don’t charge a commission on trades. Not only does City Index have the lowest spreads but also a low minimum deposit of £100.
UK Broker
EUR/USD Spreads From
Minimum Deposit
Max Professional Leverage
City Index
0.5
£100
400:1
Activtrades Plc
0.5
£1000
400:1
Plus500 UK
0.6
£100
300:1
IG Markets Limited
0.6
£250
222:1
CMC Markets UK plc
0.7
£0
400:1
FXCM Ltd
0.7
£300
400:1
Admiral Markets UK Ltd
0.7
€100
500:1
Swissquote Ltd
1.0
€1000
500:1
OANDA Europe Limited
1.1
€0
100:1
FxPro
1.2
£100
500:1
eToro (UK) Ltd
3
$200
400:1
City index offers beginner forex traders with comprehensive forex training from beginner to advanced traders. This starts with an introduction for CFD traders and moves to advanced trading strategies. There are also webinars and videos to further enhance traders knowledge of forex markets.
City Index has the Financial Conduct Authority Licence 113942 and the parent company is Gain Capital which is regulated in 8 jurisdictions. They have an online trading platform that’s ideal to use for beginner forex traders with the option of micro accounts with a minimum deposit from $0.
City Index are one of the largest CFD brokers in the UK. Offering a large range of products including indices, cryptocurrency and shares cfd, the broker is popular of its competitive spreads, proprietary and MetaTrader platforms, collection of in-house research tools and customer support. Spreads for EUR/USD begins at 0.5pips and don't have commissions.
All the forex brokers displayed on this United Kingdom page are locally regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The authority is independently formed by the government and funded by membership fees. Forex brokers are required to hold a minimum of £1 million in operating capital in the UK by the FCA. This increases based on a formula aligned to the number of traders an fx broker has. Other requirements include:
Segregating clients accounts from brokers so they can’t use it for operational expenditures
Processing instantly withdrawal requests.
Submitting to the FCA annual audited reports.
Submitted periodic statements that show capital holdings ensuring capital ratios requirements are met.
Meeting strict regulations for marketing and advertising their financial products
Resolving customer complaints mutually and allowing any failed resolution to be arbitrated by the UK financial ombudsman.
The FCA has a compensation scheme to guarantee forex broker UK client funds. This is called the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The objective of the FSCS is to compensate CFDs traders when a broker has insolvency issues with protection up to £50,000. When a solvency issue occurs and liquidation occurs the FSCS provides CFDs traders with:
100% of funds back up to £30,000
Up to 90% of funds back for amounts between £30,000 to £50,000
To make a claim a CFDs trader needs to make an insurance claim through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme website. Make sure the firm is listed on the FSCS website as compensation is only available when the body deems the broker’s assets are frozen or it’s in liquidation.
To avoid a scam broker it’s strongly recommended to choose a regulated broker. It may also be worth keeping up-to-date with the regulator’s website as recently a CFD like FXTM lost it’s Financial Conduct Authority licence in the United Kingdom.
FAQs For UK Forex Brokers
What is the best forex broker in the UK?
The best forex broker in the UK is Pepperstone based on their low fees including spreads from 0.0 pips, £2.29 commissions (£4.59 round turn) which can be further reduced through the active trader program, choice of MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 or cTrader forex trading platform and award-winning customer service. Pepperstone has local offices in London, United Kingdom and trades in the UK as Pepperstone Limited under Financial Conduct Authority Registration Number 684312.
What is the best forex broker for beginners?
Beginner forex traders should consider City Index which offers both spread betting and CFD trading. The forex broker offers extensive forex training for beginners, a unique forex platform that allows Web Trading, mobile trading via iOs/Android Apps or a desktop platform that can be downloaded and the option to trade indices, shares, forex and crypto. City Index in the United Kingdom trades as GAIN Capital UK Limited with local offices in London with FCA registration number 113942.
Which forex broker has the best spreads?
The lowest spreads available is through the Pepperstone razor forex trading account. The average EUR/USD spreads are 0.0 to 0.3 pips with a commission of £4.59 round turn 100k traded. To further reduce trading costs, Pepperstone offers an active trader program for monthly trading above 200 lots with rebates on commissions starting from 15%.
What is the best forex trading platform?
The best forex trading platform is MetaTrader 4 which is also the most popular forex platform worldwide. While the platform isn’t the most visually appealing it does the fundamentals right. This includes a fast execution speed, ease of use and extensive automated trading feature and marketplace. Other leading forex platforms include MetaTrader 5 and cTrader.
FCA Regulated Forex Broker List
Based on factors such as forex trading conditions, fees to customer service levels a list of recommended UK forex brokers regulated by the FCA was created. This was last updated in November 2019 and is regularly updated based on CFD providers that gain or lose FCA regulation. Many brokers such as OANDA, XTB and their platform Xstation were considered in this review and may be featured on the UK forex broker comparison but didn’t make it to the broker review shortlist. They are though shown on the table below.
UK Broker
Licence Number
Minimum Deposit
Max Retail Leverage
Max Professional Leverage
EUR/USD Spreads From
Trustpilot Broker Reviews
Pepperstone Limited
FCA 684312
£50
30:1
500:1
0.0
4.6/5 - 508 reviews
Swissquote Ltd
FCA 562170
€1000
30:1
400:1
1.0
2.6/5 - 10 reviews
eToro (UK) Ltd
FCA 583263
$200
30:1
400:1
3
2.3/5 - 1,670 reviews
IG Markets Limited
FCA 195355
£250
30:1
222:1
0.6
4/5 - 2,460 reviews
City Index
FCA 113942
£100
30:1
400:1
0.5
1.9/5 - 60 reviews
Abshire-Smith Global Ltd
FCA 590890
£500
30:1
200:1
0.8
Activtrades Plc
FCA 434413
£1000
30:1
400:1
0.5
4.6/5 - 572 reviews
Admiral Markets UK Ltd
FCA 595450
€100
30:1
500:1
0.7
3/5 - 9 reviews
ADS Securities London Limited
FCA 577453
£100
30:1
500:1
0.9
AxiTrader UK
FCA 509746
£0
30:1
30:1
0.2
3.8/5 - 9 reviews
City Credit Capital (UK) Ltd
FCA 232015
$500
30:1
100:1
3
CMC Markets UK plc
FCA 173730
£0
30:1
500:1
0.7
4.6/5 - 573 reviews
Darwinex
FCA 586466
€500
30:1
30:1
0.1
3.9/5 - 7 reviews
Delta Financial Markets Limited
FCA 534027
€10
30:1
200:1
0.6
2.6/5 - 6 reviews
Equiti Capital
FCA 528328
$500
50:1
500:1
0.4
3.3/5 - 3 reviews
ETX Capital
FCA 124721
£100
30:1
200:1
0.6
4.2/5 - 87 reviews
FCI Markets
FCA 616985
$1000
30:1
400:1
0.2
FOREX.com UK
FCA 113942
£50
30:1
200:1
0.8
2.8/5 - 17 reviews
Formax Prime Capital (UK) Limited
FCA 624225
£1000
30:1
200:1
0.2
FXCM Ltd
FCA 217689
£300
30:1
400:1
0.7
3.6/5 - 17 reviews
FXGiants
FCA 585561
$100
30:1
500:1
0.5
3.2/5 - 3 reviews
FXOpen UK
FCA 579202
€300
30:1
500:1
0.3
3.9/5 - 5 reviews
FxPro UK Limited
FCA 509956
£100
30:1
500:1
1.5
3.4/5 - 85 reviews
GKFX
FCA 501320
€100
30:1
400:1
0.6
2.8/5 - 3 reviews
Hantec Markets
FCA 502635
€1000
30:1
400:1
1.8
3.7/5 - 117 reviews
Hirose Financial UK Ltd
FCA 540244
£20
30:1
100:1
1.9
House of Borse Limited
FCA 631382
$5000
30:1
200:1
0.3
HYCM Ltd
FCA 186171
$100
30:1
200:1
1.8
2.9/5 - 21 reviews
ICM Capital Limited
FCA 520965
£200
30:1
200:1
1.3
2.6/5 - 4 reviews
Ikon Finance Limited
FCA 525113
$200
30:1
500:1
1.5
Interactive Brokers (UK) Ltd
FCA 208159
£0
33:1
33:1
0.2
3.9/5 - 197 reviews
InterTrader Limited
FCA 597312
£380
30:1
400:1
0.6
3.2/5 - 1 review
Kerford Investments (UK) Limited
FCA 193030
$1000
30:1
200:1
1.0
Key To Markets Limited
FCA 527809
€100
30:1
500:1
0.1
London Capital Group (LCG)
FCA 182110
£0
30:1
200:1
0.3
2.3/5 - 13 reviews
LMAX Limited
FCA 509778
$1000
30:1
100:1
0.3
3.9/5 - 3 reviews
OANDA Europe Limited
FCA 542574
€0
30:1
100:1
1.1
3/5 - 28 reviews
One Financial Markets
FCA 466201
£0
30:1
400:1
1.0
OneTrade
FCA 537787
£500
30:1
100:1
0.1
PhillipCapital UK
FCA 169760
£200
30:1
400:1
0.7
Plus500 UK
FCA 509909
£100
30:1
300:1
0.6
4.3/5 - 904 reviews
Price Markets UK
FCA 725804
$500
30:1
400:1
0.0
SVSFX
FCA 220929
$100
30:1
400:1
1.0
TempleFX
FCA 447281
£50
30:1
500:1
1.1
TeraFX UK
FCA 564741
$100
30:1
500:1
0.6
ThinkMarkets
FCA 629628
£0
30:1
500:1
0.4
2.9/5 - 28 reviews
Tickmill
FCA 717270
£100
30:1
500:1
0.1
4.5/5 - 116 reviews
Valbury Capital Limited
FCA 540418
$15000
30:1
100:1
0.3
Valutrades Limited
FCA 586541
£0
30:1
500:1
0.0
Vantage FX
FCA 590299
£200
30:1
500:1
0.0
3.7/5 - 7 reviews
VARIANSE
FCA 802012
£500
30:1
400:1
0.0
XTB Limited
FCA 522157
£250
30:1
500:1
0.1
4.3/5 - 145 reviews
CFDs + Spread Betting involves complex instruments which combined with leverage can lead to a high risk of a trader losing money rapidly. A high percentage of retail investor accounts depending on the forex broker lose money when engaging in CFDs. It’s critical to understand how CFDs, forex trading and spreads betting work. Make sure that you understand the risks of CFDs and spread bets and can afford to lose your money when trading.
Top 5 UK Forex Brokers
Top 5 UK Forex Brokers
Best Forex Broker In UK = Pepperstone
1) MetaTrader 4 Trading Platforms
2) MetaTrader 5 Trading Platform
3) cTrader Trading Platform
Spread Only Forex Accounts Offered By Swissquote
Social Trading = eToro
Range Of Forex Trading Platforms = IG Markets
Best Beginner Forex Brokers = City Index
The FCA has a compensation scheme to guarantee forex broker UK client funds. This is called the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The objective of the 
