MAS-Regulated Brokers in Singapore: FID Records of the 18 Forex and CFD Licensees That Meet Our Test

How to check a broker on FID and the Investor Alert List

I would run this check before you send any money to a firm, and it works the same for any broker you are considering.

1. Search the MAS Financial Institutions Directory for the firm’s legal name, not just its brand.
2. Confirm the licence type on the record you found reads “Capital Markets Services Licensee”.
3. Read the “Dealing In Capital Markets Products” block for the leveraged forex or OTC derivatives line, not the Exempt Financial Adviser block, since this is the permission your trading account depends on.
4. Match the legal name on the firm’s own Singapore legal page to the FID record, since FID lists entities by legal name.
5. Search the Investor Alert List for the name and the website you plan to use.

What the MAS Investor Alert List is

The Investor Alert List is, in MAS’s words, a list of persons who “may be or may have been wrongly perceived” as licensed or otherwise regulated by MAS. MAS says the list is not exhaustive and reflects what was known to it at the time of publication, so I would treat an absence from the list as one clean check, not a clearance. MAS says it will no longer publish on the list the names and online identifiers of entities that impersonate MAS-regulated financial institutions. Its advice is to verify the institution’s identity, deal only through official channels, and if in doubt check the official contact details on the firm’s website or the MAS Financial Institutions Directory. The list held 919 entries when we read it on 24 September 2026, and 156 of them carry no listed date. FID’s own home page carries a warning that scammers may impersonate MAS-regulated financial institutions, and tells readers to verify the institution’s identity and deal only through official channels before transferring money.

The June 2025 blocking of two trading platforms’ websites

A joint Singapore Police Force and MAS media release dated 6 June 2025 announced that the websites of two unregulated trading platforms would be blocked, having been determined to be in breach of the Securities and Futures Act 2001. Access is blocked for Singapore residents with effect from 20 June 2025, and consumers with active accounts with the two platforms will not be able to reach the websites through internet access service providers based in Singapore. The Singapore Police Force and MAS strongly encourage the public to deal only with regulated online trading platforms with valid capital markets services licences, which are listed on FID. Before you open an account with any online trading platform, I would find its legal entity on FID and confirm the licence, so you know your money sits with a licensee MAS regulates.

What MAS rules require of a leveraged forex account

A licence holder dealing in contracts for differences, or in spot foreign exchange contracts for leveraged foreign exchange trading, must collect margin that meets the minimums in regulation 24A and Table 18 of the Fourth Schedule to the Securities and Futures (Financial and Margin Requirements for Holders of Capital Markets Services Licences) Regulations. Table 18 sets 5% (20:1) for a customer who is not an accredited investor, expert investor or institutional investor, and 2% (50:1) for contracts entered into only with accredited, expert or institutional investors, for FX CFDs and spot forex contracts for leveraged trading without stop-loss features.

The margin must be in the form of acceptable collateral. If the value of acceptable collateral in your account falls below the minimum, the licence holder must contact you immediately, and you then have 2 business days after being told to make good the shortfall. I would keep spare cash ready for that window.

These are minimums, so a licence holder may ask you for more margin than Table 18 sets. Regulation 24A took effect on 8 October 2018, and a licence holder already dealing before that date had to comply on and after 8 October 2019.

What the FID licence and permission labels mean

The five labels explained here are the ones I would read first on any FID record, starting with the licensed activity before anything else.

• “Capital Markets Services Licensee”: the FID licence type every entity on our list holds, and FID lists 1,579 of them in all.
• “Dealing In Capital Markets Products”: the licensed activity whose product list carries the leveraged forex and OTC derivatives lines.
• “Spot Foreign Exchange Contracts for the Purposes of Leveraged Foreign Exchange Trading”: the leveraged spot forex permission.
• “Over-The-Counter Derivatives Contracts”: regulation 24A(7) defines an over-the-counter derivatives contract as a derivatives contract that is not an exchange-traded derivatives contract, and defines a contract for differences as an over-the-counter derivatives contract traded on a margin basis, settled by reference to price movements without delivery of the underlying. All eighteen that meet our test hold this permission, the sixteen we have reviewed and the two whose reviews are in progress.
• “Exempt Financial Adviser”: a separate FID licence type, whose block can list forex and OTC products too, as products the firm may advise on or publish analyses on.

Is forex trading legal in Singapore?

Yes, forex trading is legal in Singapore through an entity that holds a capital markets services licence for the product, or one FID lists as exempt from needing it (FID lists 124 Exempt Capital Markets Services Entities). Section 82 of the Securities and Futures Act 2001 (2020 Revised Edition) provides that no person may carry on business in any regulated activity unless the person holds a capital markets services licence for that regulated activity, “subject to subsection (2) and section 99” (Singapore Statutes Online, “Current version as at 24 Sep 2026”). Regulation 24A sets the margin a licence holder dealing in spot foreign exchange for leveraged foreign exchange trading must collect from its customers. For our ranked list of MAS-regulated forex brokers, see our Singapore guide.