Pepperstone — costs, regulation & account details

Overview

Legal / official name

Pepperstone Group Limited (Melbourne parent; UK entity: Pepperstone Limited)

Parent company

Pepperstone Group Limited (private; Wikipedia reports FX Group Holdings holds ~60% stake)

Founded

2010 (Melbourne, Australia; founders Owen Kerr and Joe Davenport)

Headquarters

Level 16, Tower One, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3008, Australia

Accepts customers from

Global coverage via 8 entities: UK, EEA (incl. Germany), Australia, UAE/MENA, Kenya, Bahamas entity for most of rest of world (Asia, Africa, LatAm). NOT accepted: United States (broker-confirmed), Japan, Canada, New Zealand (retail), South Korea, Brazil (CVM order 2020), plus sanctioned/high-risk states (Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, Belarus, etc.) — non-US exclusions per secondary lists, verify at signup

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

Free on all methods (cards, PayPal, Apple/Google Pay, bank transfer; AU adds POLi/PayID/BPAY, Skrill/Neteller in some regions) — broker pricing + funding pages

Withdrawal fees

Free from Pepperstone for cards/wallets/domestic bank; international bank wire: USD 20 deducted (global pricing page); EU funding page lists all methods 'Free' but notes 'intermediary fees apply' on international wires. One secondary source claims 3% PayPal withdrawal fee — contradicted by broker's own page (listed Free); treat as unverified

Inactivity fee

None — 'Pepperstone does not currently charge an inactivity fee' (Feb-2025 UK Costs & Charges doc; zero-balance/<$10 accounts archived after 90 days but reinstatable with balance intact)

Currency conversion

Charged when trade/deposit currency differs from account base currency: LP exchange rate 'plus a mark-up' — exact markup % not published (null-equivalent; see confidence notes)

Swap-free available

Yes, in some regions at Pepperstone's discretion (religious/personal grounds); admin fee USD 100 per lot per 5 days on FX & precious metals in lieu of swaps

Swap notes

FX swap = TomNext rate from LPs marked up by up to 3%; triple swap Wednesday (FX) / Friday (equities/indices); indices funding = ARR/IBOR ± 2.5% admin fee p.a.; commodities basis ± (mid × 2.5%/365); crypto funding e.g. BTC long −22.5%/yr, short +7.5%/yr (Feb-2025 UK doc examples)

Platforms & execution

MetaTrader 4

Yes — full support incl. EAs; Razor commission table above; Smart Trader Tools add-ons

MetaTrader 5

Yes

cTrader

Yes — incl. cTrader Automate (C# algo) and cTrader Copy; $6 USD RT commission on Razor

TradingView

Yes — direct trading integration; $7 USD RT Razor commission

Proprietary

Yes — 'Pepperstone platform' (flagship web platform + mobile app); $7 USD RT Razor commission

API access

Broker states 'APIs: develop custom-built systems for automated trading, and connect your own front-end solutions' (trading-platforms page); cTrader Open API/Automate available; a formal public FIX/REST API offering could not be verified

Execution model

Claimed: NDD (no dealing desk) STP execution routing to 20+ tier-1 liquidity providers; 'raw'/ECN-like but NOT a true ECN (broker is counterparty, prices from external LPs). Assessed by reviewers as primarily A-book STP/hybrid; not independently auditable

Max leverage (by region)

Retail 30:1 (major FX) under FCA UK, CySEC/BaFin EU, ASIC AU, DFSA UAE; SCB Bahamas (global) entity: 200:1 retail FX/gold/major indices, stocks 20:1, BTC 20:1, up to 1000:1 FX for pro clients (broker FAQ on global site); CMA Kenya reported up to 400:1 (secondary only); professional clients in UK/EU/AU up to 500:1 (secondary)

VPS

Yes — VPS hosting promoted for algo traders ('ultra-low latency... 24-hour connectivity'); commercial terms/eligibility thresholds not published on fetched page

Copy trading

Yes — 'CopyTrading by Pepperstone' (MT4/MT5 signal marketplace) and cTrader Copy (broker platforms page)

Instruments

Forex

90+ currency pairs (majors, minors, crosses, exotics) — broker markets page

CFDs

1400+ CFDs total: 20+ major stock indices, 40 commodity markets, 1100+ share CFDs (US/UK/AU/HK/EU), 90+ ETFs, plus currency indices and CFD forwards

Crypto CFDs

~20+ coins (BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, XRP, DOT, DOGE, plus 2025-26 additions like SUI, TON, APT, INJ, HBAR) and Crypto 10/20/30 indices; leverage 2:1 (UK/EU/AU-facing page) up to 20:1 BTC retail on SCB global entity

Crypto for retail (no pro status)

UK: NO — FCA ban on crypto derivatives for retail (2021) still in force as of 2026; Pepperstone UK does not offer crypto CFDs to retail. EU (CySEC) and AU (ASIC): YES at 2:1 leverage. SCB global entity: YES (BTC 20:1 per broker FAQ). UK professional clients: exempt from ban in principle, but Pepperstone-specific pro-client crypto offering not verified

Consumer protection

Negative balance protection

Yes for retail clients of FCA/CySEC/BaFin/ASIC entities (statutory); broker/reviewers state NBP applies to retail across its regulated entities incl. SCB, but for the Bahamas entity it is policy-based, not statutory — verify per entity before relying on it

Client fund segregation

Yes — client money held in segregated accounts at tier-1 banks, separate from firm funds (FCA CASS rules UK; equivalent arrangements other entities)

Compensation scheme

UK (Pepperstone Limited): FSCS up to £85,000. EU (Pepperstone EU Ltd, CySEC): ICF up to €20,000. Germany (GmbH): EdW 90% up to €20,000. Australia/Bahamas/Kenya/UAE entities: no statutory compensation scheme

Stated retail loss %

72.9% (UK site 'spread bets and CFDs' and EU site CFD warning, both live as of 11 Jul 2026; Feb-2025 UK doc showed 73.6%)

Reputation

Trustpilot: ~4.3–4.4 'Excellent' from roughly 3,400–3,500 reviews (mid-2026; ~80% 5-star, ~9% 1-star). Exact live TrustScore could not be read directly (Trustpilot blocked fetching); secondary 2026 sources report between 4.3 and 4.6 (Trustpilot)

Regulatory actions / fines

• 2014: ASIC report revealed Pepperstone operating in Japan without local FSA license; Japanese clients given Dec 2014 withdrawal deadline
• 2020: Brazil CVM ordered Pepperstone to cease soliciting Brazilian clients without local authorization
• 2023 (Nov): ASIC identified leverage-ratio breaches (product intervention order limits); Pepperstone compensated 1,500+ affected clients — remediation, no published fine
• 2026: shareholders ordered to pay A$96.9m to CPE Capital over 2018 buyout dispute (civil/corporate, not regulatory)
• No known monetary fines from FCA, CySEC, DFSA or SCB as of Jul 2026

Noted issues

• 1-star Trustpilot themes: order execution problems/platform freezing, occasional withdrawal delay complaints
• Razor on Pepperstone drops SL in some OrderSend paths on MT4 ECN-style fills — stop-losses may need setting post-fill (widely discussed by algo traders; matches ECN-style execution behavior)
• Demo-vs-live spread differences reported in community forums (relevant to strategy testing)

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.