Brokers › IC Markets

IC Markets — costs, regulation & account details

International Capital Markets Pty Ltd (original Australian entity; group trades as "IC Markets" / "IC Markets Global")

73.68% (icmarkets.bs, SCB entity, fetched 2026-07-11); 72.52% (icmarkets.eu, CySEC entity, fetched 2026-07-11) of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs/forex with this provider (broker-stated).

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Overview

Legal / official name: International Capital Markets Pty Ltd (original Australian entity; group trades as "IC Markets" / "IC Markets Global")
Parent company: Privately held; founder Andrew Budzinski via his privately held Bud Corporation (per Wikipedia/Crunchbase). No public group holding-company disclosure.
Founded: 2007 (Sydney, Australia; founded by Andrew Budzinski)
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia (group origin); operating entities in Cyprus (Limassol), Seychelles, Bahamas, Kenya, Mauritius
Accepts customers from: Global coverage via five entities: Australia (ASIC), EU/EEA (CySEC), Kenya (CMA), rest-of-world via Seychelles (FSA) and Bahamas (SCB) entities. The international (.bs) site explicitly excludes residents of the US, Brazil, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Japan, Iran and North Korea. UK residents ARE accepted but only via offshore entities (no FCA license; FCA issued an Oct 2024 warning against IC Markets Global targeting UK consumers).

Regulation & entities

Brokers operate multiple legal entities; the protections and leverage you get depend on which one holds your account.

Entity	Regulator	Licence	Region
International Capital Markets Pty Ltd	ASIC (Australia)	AFSL 335692	Australia (retail leverage capped 30:1, negative balance protection per ASIC product intervention order)
IC Markets (EU) Ltd	CySEC (Cyprus)	Licence No. 362/18 (company reg. HE 356877)	EU/EEA retail and professional clients (ESMA 30:1 retail cap, ICF compensation, NBP)
Raw Trading Ltd (trading as IC Markets Global)	FSA Seychelles	SD018	Rest of world / international clients incl. UK residents (no FCA protections); leverage up to 1:1000; FCA issued an unauthorised-firm warning about 'IC Markets Global' targeting UK consumers (Oct 2024)
IC Markets Ltd (trading as IC Markets International)	SCB (Securities Commission of The Bahamas)	SIA-F214 (company no. 76823 C)	International; site excludes residents of US, Brazil, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Japan, Iran, North Korea; publishes 73.68% retail-loss figure
IC Markets (KE) Limited	CMA (Capital Markets Authority, Kenya)	Licence No. 199	Kenya
IC Trading Ltd (sister brand 'IC Trading', ictrading.com — same parent group, same liquidity, separate brand)	FSC Mauritius	Not stated	International (offshore, leverage up to 1:500); included for completeness — operates as a distinct brand

Accounts & pricing

Account	Pricing model	Commission (round turn)	Typical EUR/USD spread	Min. deposit
Raw Spread (MetaTrader 4/5)	raw + commission	USD 7.00 round turn (USD 3.50 per lot per side) — official account overview pages (.eu and .bs)	0.1 pips average (advertised, from 0.0) — official account overview	USD 200 (or currency equivalent; third-party consensus — not displayed on official overview pages fetched)
Raw Spread (cTrader)	raw + commission	USD 3.00 per USD 100k traded per side ≈ USD 6.00 round turn per standard lot (official pages state '$3.0 per USD 100k'; round-turn conversion is arithmetic, exact USD figure varies with pair notional)	from 0.0 pips; average not separately published for cTrader (same raw feed as MT raw, ~0.1 typical per third parties)	USD 200 (third-party consensus)
Standard (MetaTrader 4/5)	spread-only (no commission)	USD 0	advertised 'from 0.8 pips' (official); AVERAGE not verified — see confidence_notes (official spreads-page fetch returned an implausible table read and was discarded)	USD 200 (third-party consensus)

Professional client account

Professional-account data is being compiled for this broker.

Costs

Deposit fees: None charged by IC Markets on any method (cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, wire, local banking) — official withdrawal/funding page
Withdrawal fees: IC Markets charges $0 on all methods (official .bs withdrawal page: 'does not charge any additional fees for deposits or withdrawals'). Exception: international bank-wire withdrawals incur the banks' pass-through/intermediary charges — third parties consistently cite ~AUD 20 (or currency equivalent); exact amount is bank-dependent, not an IC Markets fee
Inactivity fee: None (multiple 2026 sources: BrokerChooser, TradingCritique, TradersUnion); could not confirm on a primary page (help centre blocked) but corroboration is strong and consistent
Currency conversion: Not published as an explicit fee; P/L on instruments denominated in non-base currency converts at prevailing rates; ~10 account base currencies offered (USD, AUD, EUR, GBP, SGD, NZD, JPY, CHF, HKD, CAD per reviews). NULL for exact markup — unverified
Swap-free available: Yes — Islamic/swap-free variant of Standard and Raw accounts for eligible clients (religious-belief basis, documentation may be requested); 5-day grace period, then flat holding fee per lot per night charged every calendar day incl. weekends
Swap notes: Standard overnight swaps apply on non-Islamic accounts (triple-swap day applies per FX convention). Swap-free holding fees reported by a third-party audit at e.g. ~$9/lot/night EURUSD and ~$58/lot/night gold — indicative only, NOT verified against the official FSA Islamic T&Cs PDF

Platforms & execution

MetaTrader 4: Yes — all entities
MetaTrader 5: Yes — all entities
cTrader: Yes (incl. cTrader Copy widget integrated into client area, 2024)
TradingView: Yes — official TradingView integration (trade from TradingView charts; announced on IC Markets and TradingView blogs)
Proprietary: No full proprietary platform; web client area with integrated copy-trading widget (mobile app exists for account management — full proprietary trading platform not verified)
API access: FIX/API access reported by third parties (daytrading.com) and cTrader Open API available by platform nature; NOT verified on an official IC Markets page — treat as unconfirmed

Execution model: Claimed: 'True ECN'/raw-pricing with deep aggregated liquidity from tier-1 LPs. Assessed: OTC CFD broker aggregating LP feeds (NDD/STP-style raw pricing on Raw accounts) — not an exchange ECN; 'True ECN' is marketing language, though independent reviews consistently confirm genuinely raw spreads + commission pricing
Max leverage (by region): 30:1 retail EU (CySEC/ESMA) and AU (ASIC); up to 500:1 via Bahamas SCB entity (FX/gold; ~200:1 indices/energies per third-party testing — note the .bs overview page itself displayed 1:200, discrepancy flagged); up to 1000:1 via Seychelles FSA entity (per IC Markets Global help centre as quoted by TradersUnion); crypto 2:1 retail EU/AU
VPS: Free VPS if trading ≥15 standard lots/month (FX/metals); tiered Pro VPS ≥30 lots and Premium ≥75 lots per month (official VPS page + NYCServers partner blog); below threshold the free VPS can be cancelled/charged
Copy trading: Yes — cTrader Copy widget embedded in client area (2024); third-party platforms (Myfxbook AutoTrade, ZuluTrade) historically supported per reviews (not re-verified on official page)

Instruments

Forex: 61 currency pairs (official EU account overview); some reviews cite 75+ incl. crypto crosses
CFDs: Indices, commodities (metals/energies/softs), 2,100+ share CFDs (ASX/NASDAQ/NYSE, mostly via MT5), bonds, futures; third parties cite ~2,250–3,583 total instruments across entities
Crypto CFDs: 20 crypto CFDs listed on icmarkets.eu (BTC, ETH, SOL, ADA, DOT, DOGE, etc.); forexbrokers.com counts 22 on global entity; 7-days-a-week crypto trading advertised
Crypto for retail (no pro status): UK: NO under FCA rules — the 2021 FCA ban on crypto derivatives for retail consumers still in force as of 2026, and IC Markets has NO FCA entity (UK residents can only access crypto via the offshore Seychelles/Bahamas entities, outside FCA protection; FCA warned against IC Markets Global in Oct 2024). EU: YES for retail via CySEC entity, leverage 1:2, 20 instruments (verified on icmarkets.eu). AU: YES for retail via ASIC entity at ASIC-capped 2:1 leverage (per ASIC product intervention; corroborated by reviews — not re-verified on official AU page). Offshore entities: YES with higher leverage.

Consumer protection

Negative balance protection: Per entity: EU (CySEC) retail — YES, guaranteed (not for professionals). AU (ASIC) retail — YES per ASIC product intervention order. Seychelles (Raw Trading Ltd) — NO blanket NBP; help centre states clients responsible for negative balances (per BrokerChooser/TradersUnion quoting IC Markets help centre). Bahamas — not clearly guaranteed; BrokerChooser states NBP 'across all entities except Raw Trading Ltd' — treat offshore NBP as discretionary
Client fund segregation: Yes — client funds held in segregated trust accounts separate from company funds: AA-rated Australian banks (Westpac, NAB) for the AU entity; top-tier European banks under MiFID client-money rules for the EU entity (broker statements corroborated by multiple reviews)
Compensation scheme: EU entity: CySEC Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) up to €20,000. UK: NO FSCS £85k cover (no FCA entity). AU: no statutory compensation scheme for CFD client losses (AFCA dispute resolution only). Seychelles/Bahamas/Kenya/Mauritius: none
Stated retail loss %: 73.68% (icmarkets.bs, SCB entity, fetched 2026-07-11); 72.52% (icmarkets.eu, CySEC entity, fetched 2026-07-11)

Reputation

Trustpilot: 4.8/5 (icmarkets.com Global, ~54,000 reviews, ~91% 5-star); IC Markets (EU) Ltd separately ~4.9/5 (~4,000 reviews) — figures from mid-2026 search snippets; direct Trustpilot fetch returned 403 (Trustpilot)

Regulatory actions / fines

CySEC fined IC Markets (EU) Ltd €200,000 (announced 2024) for circumventing ESMA/MiFIR initial-margin (leverage) protection requirements for retail CFD clients — IC Markets disputes the decision and pursued an appeal
CySEC fined IC Markets (EU) Ltd €50,000 (July 2024): €30,000 for best-execution failures (insufficient weight to price/size in execution quality) and €10,000 for unclear cost-and-charges disclosures
FCA (UK) unauthorised-firm warning against 'IC Markets Global' (1 Oct 2024): may be providing/promoting financial services in the UK without authorisation; UK customers get no FOS or FSCS access
Australian class action (Echo Law, filed against International Capital Markets Pty Ltd) alleging misleading, deceptive and unconscionable conduct in the sale of CFDs to retail investors — ongoing as of research date

Noted issues

No FCA entity: UK residents are onboarded to offshore entities (Seychelles/Bahamas) with no UK protections — material for a UK-facing comparison product
Offshore entities (Raw Trading Ltd Seychelles) carry no guaranteed negative balance protection at up to 1:1000 leverage
Recurring (minority) complaint themes on review sites: occasional withdrawal processing delays and slippage/execution complaints during news; overall dispute volume low relative to peers given review scores

Sources

Every figure above is drawn from these sources, retrieved as of the dates shown.

Regulation — Bahamas entity, license SIA-F214, excluded countries, 73.68% loss disclosure (2026-07-11)
Regulation — all five entity license numbers (ASIC 335692, CySEC 362/18, FSA SD018, SCB SIA-F214, CMA Kenya 199) (2026-07-11 (via search snippets; direct fetch blocked))
Account types, commissions ($3.5/side MT raw, $3.0/100k cTrader, $0 standard), EURUSD raw avg 0.1, leverage 1:30 EU (2026-07-11)
Account types global/offshore mirror (same commissions), 61 FX pairs, 50% stop-out (2026-07-11)
Withdrawal methods and fees (broker charges $0; wire pass-through bank fees; same-day before 12:00 AEST) (2026-07-11)
Minimum deposit USD 200 (secondary consensus) (2026-07-11)
Inactivity fee: none; deposit fees: none (secondary corroboration) (2026-07-11)
Leverage by entity incl. Seychelles up to 1:1000 (quoting IC Markets help centre) and offshore NBP absence (2026-07-11)
EU crypto CFDs: 20 instruments, retail, 1:2 leverage, 72.52% loss disclosure (2026-07-11)
UK access: no FCA entity, FSCS gap, UK clients via offshore entities (2026-07-11)
FCA warning against IC Markets Global (1 Oct 2024) (2026-07-11)
CySEC €50k fine (Jul 2024, best execution + cost disclosure) after €200k fine (initial-margin protection) (2026-07-11)
CySEC €200k fine details (MiFIR art. 42 CFD leverage-protection circumvention) (2026-07-11)
Australian class action (misleading/deceptive CFD sales) (2026-07-11)
Trustpilot score 4.8/5, ~54k reviews (Global); EU entity 4.9/5 (2026-07-11 (via search snippets; direct fetch 403))
Partner programs (IB, Multi-Level, Regional; $2M monthly payouts; no published rates) (2026-07-11)
Affiliate CPA up to $650, country tiers $250/$200/$100 (secondary, unverified) (2026-07-11)
Free VPS conditions (15/30/75 lots per month tiers) (2026-07-11 (via search snippets + NYCServers partner blog))
Swap-free/Islamic account: 5-day grace, flat nightly holding fee, official T&Cs PDF exists (2026-07-11 (PDF located, not parsed; fee examples from theforexlens.com audit))
Demo account expiry (30 days inactivity) and demo-vs-live pricing/execution nuance (2026-07-11)
TradingView integration (official announcement) (2026-07-11)
cTrader Copy widget in client area (copy trading) (2026-07-11)
Founded 2007 Sydney, Andrew Budzinski, privately held (Bud Corporation) (2026-07-11)
Instrument counts (3,583 total per ForexBrokers.com; 22 crypto CFDs global) (2026-07-11)
Client fund segregation (Westpac/NAB AU; MiFID client-money EU) and NBP-per-entity summary (2026-07-11)
IC Trading Mauritius sister brand (FSC, same liquidity, 1:500) (2026-07-11 (secondary; license number not verified))
Bahamas/Seychelles leverage testing (1:500 FX/gold, 1:200 indices) (2026-07-11)

Data notes: Set null / flagged as unverified: (1) STANDARD ACCOUNT AVERAGE EURUSD SPREAD — official pages only show 'from 0.8 pips'; my fetch of the official spreads table (icmarkets.bs/en/trading-pricing/spreads) returned an implausible read (Raw avg 0.01 / Standard avg 0.1) almost certainly a column-parse error, so it was DISCARDED; third parties commonly cite ~0.6–1.1 average but I did not put a number in the money-critical field. (2) Minimum deposit USD 200 comes from consistent secondary sources; official overview pages fetched did not render a min-deposit figure. (3) cTrader commission is officially '$3.0 per USD 100k per side' — the ~$6.00 round-turn-per-lot figure is my arithmetic conversion, exact USD varies with notional. (4) International wire withdrawal fee (~AUD 20) is a bank pass-through cited by secondary sources; IC Markets' own page says it charges $0 and banks may charge. (5) Inactivity fee 'none' is multi-source secondary consensus; primary help-centre (Zendesk) returned 403. (6) Swap-free holding-fee examples ($9/lot/night EURUSD, $58 gold, 5-day grace) are from a third-party audit; official Islamic T&Cs PDF located but not parsed. (7) Affiliate CPA 'up to $650' and $250/$200/$100 tiers are from affiliate aggregators — the official partner site publishes NO rates. (8) FIX/REST API availability is third-party-reported only. (9) Trustpilot 4.8 (~54k reviews) via search snippets dated 2026 — direct fetch 403. (10) Bahamas entity max leverage: the .bs overview displayed 1:200 while multiple third parties report up to 1:500 on FX/gold — unresolved discrepancy, both captured. (11) icmarkets.com main domain blocked all direct fetches (empty pages), so .bs and .eu mirrors plus search corroboration were used; commission/spread figures on .eu and .bs mirrors matched exactly. (12) AU retail crypto-CFD access at 2:1 is per ASIC rules + reviews, not re-verified on the AU-entity site. (13) IC Trading (Mauritius FSC) license number not verified; included as sister brand for completeness. (14) Demo-vs-live: broker's exact primary-source wording could not be fetched (help centre blocked); the 'live feed but not connected to live execution environment' characterization is from reputable secondary reviews quoting broker terms.

Cost figures reflect each broker's published specifications as of 11 July 2026 and can change; always check the broker's current terms. Most retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs. PipTax compares costs and is not investment advice. How we research this.