OANDA — costs, regulation & account details

Overview

Legal / official name

OANDA Global Corporation (group holding; primary US operating entity OANDA Corporation)

Parent company

FTMO Group (Czech Republic) — acquisition from CVC Capital Partners (owner 2018–2025) completed 1 December 2025; OANDA run as a standalone business. Note: FTMO wound down the "OANDA Prop Trader" service in March 2026.

Founded

1996 (founded by Michael Stumm and Richard Olsen)

Headquarters

New York, NY, USA — OANDA Corporation, 17 State Street, Suite 300, New York, NY 10004

Publicly listed

No — privately held by FTMO Group since December 2025 (previously CVC Capital Partners Asia Fund IV)

Accepts customers from

Near-global via 9 entities, and notably ACCEPTS US residents (OANDA Corporation — rare among FX brokers), plus UK, EU/EEA (via Polish TMS entity), Canada, Australia, Singapore, Japan. The offshore BVI entity (OANDA Global Markets) accepts residents of ONLY 12 countries: Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, Vietnam — it is not a catch-all offshore funnel. Sanctioned jurisdictions excluded. Clients are onboarded to the entity matching their residence (no choice of entity/leverage shopping within OANDA).

Regulation & entities

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

Accounts & pricing

Professional client account

Professional-account data is being compiled for this broker.

Costs

Deposit fees

None charged by OANDA: US — wire, debit card and ACH deposits free; UK — no deposit fees (but card issuers/banks may levy their own transaction/international fees; SWIFT/CHAPS/SEPA bank charges possible)

Withdrawal fees

CONFLICTING BY ENTITY: OANDA UK charges page states 'We do not charge withdrawal fees' (receiving-bank fees possible). However OANDA's legacy trading-account fee schedule PDF (oanda.com/assets/documents/71) lists bank wire withdrawals: first withdrawal per calendar month USD 20 / EUR 20 / GBP 10 / AUD 20 / CAD 20 / JPY 2,000 / CHF 20 / HKD 150 (SGD: free), additional wires in same month +USD 15 (or ccy equivalent); debit card: first withdrawal per month free, then ~USD 15. Which entities the PDF currently applies to is unverified — treat wire fees as likely for US/legacy accounts, nil for UK

Inactivity fee

USD 20 per month (converted to account currency; capped at 20 USD per client across sub-accounts) after 12 months (365 days) with no trading activity; NOT charged while any position is open; crypto accounts exempt; debited third-to-last weekday of month; up to 3 months' fees rebatable on resuming trading; stops at zero balance

Currency conversion

1.0% mark-up/mark-down on the mid-market rate at time of conversion — applies on v20 and v20 MT4 accounts when realized P/L, financing etc. is in a currency different from the account home currency

Swap-free available

Yes — OANDA Global Markets (BVI) swap-free/Islamic account on ~26 instruments; no swap for first 5 days, daily admin fee from day 6 including weekends. Not advertised for UK/EU/US divisions

Swap notes

FX financing = blend of liquidity providers' tom-next swap rates plus an OANDA admin fee (rates not published on charges page; per-instrument on financing page). Share/ETF CFDs (UK/EU): 0.06%–0.08% of notional charged on BOTH open and close. US spot crypto: fees per Paxos schedule

Platforms & execution

MetaTrader 4

Yes — most divisions incl. US, UK, AU, BVI (MT4 sub-accounts, incl. demo, are closed after 90 days of inactivity)

MetaTrader 5

Yes for OANDA Europe Limited (UK) — dedicated MT5 support/troubleshooting guide on help.oanda.com/uk; availability varies by division (not confirmed for US)

cTrader

No — cTrader not offered on any OANDA division (no mention anywhere on oanda.com)

TradingView

Yes — direct TradingView integration (trade FX/CFDs from TradingView charts; US clients can also trade Paxos-offered spot crypto via TradingView)

Proprietary

OANDA Trade / fxTrade — web, desktop, iOS/Android mobile (flagship platform, all divisions)

API access

v20 REST API (developer.oanda.com) — free, available to all divisions EXCEPT OANDA Global Markets (BVI) and OANDA TMS Brokers (EU); plus MT4 API and FIX API; Algo Labs libraries in Python, C#, Java. Long-standing, well-documented retail API — a genuine differentiator

Execution model

CLAIMED: proprietary automated pricing/execution engine, no minimum deposit, no requotes, 'core pricing' with raw-style spreads. ASSESSED: market maker / principal (dealing-desk) — OANDA is a registered RFED in the US and acts as counterparty to client trades across divisions; it is NOT an ECN/STP agency broker even on core-pricing accounts. NFA 2025 action also revealed it runs offsetting trades with an affiliate and third-party prime brokers

Max leverage (by region)

US retail: up to 50:1 forex (CFTC), crypto spot unleveraged; UK retail: 30:1 majors (margin from 3.3%, FCA); EU retail (TMS): 30:1 (ESMA); AU retail: 30:1 (ASIC product intervention order); Singapore retail: MAS-capped (20:1 standard — not individually verified on OANDA page); Japan: 25:1 (JFSA standard — not individually verified); Canada: CIRO risk-based margin; OANDA Global Markets (BVI): up to 200:1

VPS

No broker-wide VPS offer found on oanda.com; one 2026 review (Traders Union) lists free VPS as an OANDA Global Markets Premium Plus perk — unverified

Copy trading

No native copy-trading service as of 2026 (per multiple 2026 third-party reviews; no copy product on oanda.com). Automation available via MT4 EAs, v20 API and TradingView

Instruments

Forex

70+ FX pairs advertised on UK division ('over 70 major and minor forex CFD pairs'); ~68–70 commonly cited across divisions; US division offers FX as leveraged spot (RFED), not CFDs

CFDs

Indices (major global equity indexes), hard & soft commodities (copper, corn, natural gas etc.), metals (gold, silver), government bonds (Bund, UK 10-yr Gilt, US T-Bond); ~1,500 share CFDs from US/UK/EU plus dozens of ETF CFDs on UK/EU divisions (share CFDs launched UK ~2023); '300+ products' at OANDA Global Markets; spread betting available UK

Crypto CFDs

EU (OANDA TMS): yes for retail; Australia: yes for retail — 4 coins (Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin); BVI (OGM): yes; UK: NO crypto CFDs (FCA ban); US: no crypto CFDs — spot crypto only via Paxos

Crypto for retail (no pro status)

UK: NO — FCA ban on crypto derivatives for retail (effective Jan 2021) still in force as of Jul 2026; OANDA instead offers retail SPOT crypto via FCA-registered OANDA Coinpass Ltd (FRN 921481). EU (TMS Poland): YES — crypto CFDs available to retail at ESMA 2:1 leverage. AU: YES — 4 crypto CFDs for retail under ASIC caps. US: no leveraged crypto; unleveraged spot crypto via Paxos Trust integration (active as of mid-2026). BVI OGM: YES

Consumer protection

Negative balance protection

Per-entity: UK (FCA) and EU (ESMA/KNF) retail — YES, statutory; Australia retail — YES under ASIC CFD product intervention order; US — NO statutory NBP (automated margin closeout, but client can theoretically owe); Canada — addressed in a CIRO-entity FAQ, exact policy not verified; BVI (OGM) — not verified

Client fund segregation

Yes — client money held in segregated accounts per local client-asset rules (FCA CASS in UK; ASIC client money rules in AU — OANDA publicly supported the AU segregation reforms; US funds held at custodian banks but note US forex customers are NOT protected in bankruptcy like securities/futures customers)

Compensation scheme

UK: FSCS up to £85,000 (OANDA Europe Ltd clients); EU: Polish investor compensation scheme applies to OANDA TMS Brokers clients (coverage limit not verified on primary source); Canada: CIPF coverage as CIRO dealer member (limit not independently verified); US, Singapore, Japan, BVI: no equivalent retail FX compensation scheme

Stated retail loss %

76.6% (OANDA Europe Ltd, oanda.com/uk-en footer, read 11 Jul 2026); OANDA TMS Brokers EU pages show 75–76%

Reputation

Trustpilot: 3.7/5 (~1,221 reviews) as of July 2026 — obtained via search results; direct Trustpilot fetch blocked (403) (Trustpilot)

Regulatory actions / fines

• 2025 (May): NFA fined OANDA Corporation $600,000 (case 25BCC00004) — failed to maintain required adjusted net capital (deficiency persisted ~7 months in 2023), failed to collect security deposits on affiliate forex transactions, incorrect margin calculations, misleading promotional material, and a pricing display error on a third-party platform harming ~3,900 customers (~$428,592 total harm; restitution ordered)
• 2021 (April): NFA fined OANDA Corporation $200,000 — inaccurate daily forex reports to NFA, supervision failures, inadequate AML program
• 2023: self-disclosed negative excess regulatory capital Jan–Jul 2023 (basis of the 2025 NFA action) — disclosed on OANDA's Regulatory Public Disclosures page

Noted issues

• Recurring Trustpilot complaint themes: delayed/blocked withdrawals, limited withdrawal methods, slow support responses (positives: onboarding, proactive customer service, platform quality)
• Ownership churn: CVC (2018) → FTMO (Dec 2025); FTMO shut down the OANDA Prop Trader service in March 2026 — product-line stability risk under new ownership
• US entity's capital-management failures 2023 (see NFA 2025 fine) are a solvency-adjacent yellow flag despite $61M equity claimed
• Spread-only pricing is expensive at headline rates (US sample EUR/USD 1.4, GBP/USD 2.0); core pricing requires $10k balance and its US commission ($14 RT/100k) is high vs ECN competitors

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.