Comparison of FSCA Regulated Forex Brokers

Note: The average/typical spread and the minimum deposit is as per information on these brokers’ websites in September 2024. Please see the general trading conditions below.

Best FSCA Regulated Forex Brokers

Here are 2024’s best FSCA-regulated forex brokers in South Africa:

1. Plus500 – FSCA Regulated Forex Broker with 24/7 customer support
2. Exness – FSCA Regulated Broker with No inactive account fees
3. HF Markets – Forex Broker with FSCA Regulation
4. FXCM– FSCA Regulated Broker with Commission-free Trading
5. Tickmill – FSCA Regulated Broker with ZAR as Account Currency
6. AvaTrade – FSCA Regulated Broker with Negative Balance Protection

#1 Plus500 – FSCA-Regulated Forex Broker with 24/7 Customer Support

Account types: Plus500 has only one account type for clients in South Africa, which is the Retail Account with maximum leverage of 1:30. You can only open individual accounts with this broker. Plus500 offers negative balance protection to traders, which means you cannot lose more than your deposits even if you suffer a loss in a trade.

Fees: Trading fees on Plus500 are spreads, currency conversion fees, and swap fees. Plus500 does not charge commissions on all instruments. Plus500 offers free deposits and withdrawals but charges dormant accounts after 3 months of inactivity.

Tradable Instruments: Financial instruments that you can trade on Plus500 South Africa are CFDs on forex currency pairs, shares, indices, commodities (oil, metals, and agriculture), cryptocurrencies, options, and ETFs.

Deposits/Withdrawals: You can deposit and withdraw from Plus500 with cards and bank transfers. Cards and e-wallets deposits are credited instantly and it takes up to 5 days for bank wire transfers. Withdrawals are processed within 1-3 business days and may take more days for you to receive funds.

Trading Platforms and Support: Plus500 supports a proprietary trading application – Plus500 Trader. The application is available on the web version, desktop and mobile devices (iOS and Android). Plus500 offers 24/7 Customer support via live chat, email and social media for traders in South Africa.

#2 FSCA Regulated Broker with No Inactive Account Fees

Account types: Account types available on Exness are Standard Accounts and Professional Accounts which has varying features.

They are further divided into Standard and Standard Cent Account under the standard category, as well as Raw Spread, Zero and Pro Accounts on the professional category.

Exness also offers Social Trading Accounts and Portfolio Management Accounts. You can also request for a swap-free that conforms with Islamic principles.

You can open an account as an individual or corporate entity on Exness. The maximum leverage on Exness is 1:2,000. Although your maximum leverage reduces as your account becomes bigger and can be as low as 1:500 when your account equity exceeds $30,000. Exness also offer negative balance protection.

Fees: Trading fees charged by Exness are spreads, commissions on Raw Spread and Zero Accounts, and swap fees. The broker does not charge commissions on Standard Accounts trades. Exness does not charge any fees for deposits or withdrawals, and there is no account inactivity fee.

Tradable Instruments: Available financial instruments on Exness in South Africa for trading are CFDs on forex currencies pairs, stocks, indices, energies, cryptocurrencies, and metals.

Deposits/Withdrawals: Payment methods supported on Exness for deposits and withdrawals in South Africa are cards (debit/credits), e-wallets (Ozow, Mybux, Skrill), and local internet banking. Deposits via these methods are credited instantly. Withdrawals to e-wallets (Mybux and Skrill) are instant while it takes up to 72 hours for bank accounts.

Trading Platforms and Support: The broker supports the MT4 and MT5 trading applications and a proprietary Trader (Exness Trader). You can access the platforms on the web, desktop or mobile devices. Customer support of Exness is available 24/7 via live chat and email for South African traders.

#3 HF Markets- Forex Broker with FSCA Regulation

Account types: Account types offered by HF Markets are Cent, Zero, Pro, Pro Plus, Premium, and Top Bonus Account. The maximum leverage on HF Markets is 1:2000, which applies to forex pairs, other instruments have lower leverage limits. HF Markets offers negative balance protection for traders.

Fees: Trading fees charged by HF Markets are spreads, swap fees and commissions. HF Markets charges commission fees on forex only when using the Zero Account. Other Account types are commission-free.

HF Markets does not charge fees on deposits and all withdrawals are also free of charge, although the broker charges a monthly inactive account fee after 12 months of dormancy.

Tradable Instruments: You can trade CFDs on forex currencies pairs, indices, commodities (oil, metals, agriculture), cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs and bonds on HF Markets South Africa.

Deposits/Withdrawals: Payment methods supported on HF Markets are cards, e-wallets (Skrill) and online bank transfers. Deposits via these methods are credited within 10 minutes. Withdrawals made to bank accounts take about 1-3 working days to receive. It takes 24 hours to receive withdrawals to e-wallets and up to 10 business days for withdrawals to cards.

Trading Platforms and Support: The broker supports the MT4 and MT5 trading application and a proprietary trading application – HFM App and WebTrader. You can access the platforms on the web, desktop or mobile devices. HF Markets offers customer support to traders in South Africa via live chat, email and phone which is available 24/5.

#4 FXCM – FSCA Regulated Broker with Commission-free Trading

Account types: The 2 account types offered by FXCM in South Africa are Retail Account and Professional Accounts for more experienced traders. Accounts with retail status (which is the default) can trade with maximum leverage of 1:30. If you qualify for a Professional Account (professional client) you can trade with a leverage of up to 1:200. Your account can be classified as an Active Trader and you get some extra benefits. You can also apply for Islamic Account if you are a muslim and can prove it. FXCM offer negative balance protection for clients in South Africa.

Fees: FXCM fees include spreads and swap fees. While FXCM offers commission-free trading for all accounts, Active Trader Accounts are required to pay commissions on trades. The broker does not charge a fee for deposits, but withdrawals via bank wire transfers attract a fee of $40. If your account becomes dormant for 12 months, the broker charges an annual inactivity fee.

Tradable Instruments:Financial instruments on FXCM are CFDs on forex currency pairs, forex baskets, bonds, indices, indices baskets, stocks, stocks baskets, treasury (bond), commodities (oil, metals and agriculture), cryptocurrencies (for only professional clients) and precious metals pairs.

Deposits/Withdrawals:Payment methods supported for deposits and withdrawals on FXCM South Africa are e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, etc), cards, and local bank transfer. Deposits can take 1 to 2 business days for bank transfer, 24 hours for cards and 1 business day for e-wallets. Withdrawals from FXCM can take 3 to 5 business days, depending on the payment method used.

Trading Platforms and Support: The broker supports the MT4 trading application and a proprietary ‘FXCM Trading Station’ which are available on the web, desktop and mobile devices (Android & iOS). FXCM offers 24/5 customer services to clients via live chat, email and local phone number.

#5 Tickmill – FSCA Regulated Broker with ZAR as Account Currency

Account types: You can open 3 account types on Tickmill in South Africa, which are Pro, Classic and VIP Accounts. All accounts have a maximum leverage of 1:500, which applies to major forex pairs and gold, other financial instruments have lower leverage limit. Negative balance protection is not guaranteed on Tickmill as the broker can choose not to clear a negative balance. This means that you may lose more than your deposits.

Fees: Tickmill charges spreads, commissions and swap fees. Classic Account users on Tickmill do not pay commissions on trades of certain instruments, including forex pairs. Tickmill offers free deposits and withdrawals. The broker does not charge any inactivity fee, however, any account that is dormant for more than 60 days and has less than $50 balance is disabled.

Tradable Instruments: Instruments you can trade on Tickmill are CFDs on forex currencies pairs, stocks indices, oil commodities, metals, cryptocurrencies and bonds.

Deposits/Withdrawals: IG Markets supports cards, internet bank transfers, crypto and e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller). While cards, crypto and e-wallets deposits are credited instantly, it takes about 2-7 business days for bank transfers. Withdrawals to cards take 1-8 business days and withdrawals to bank accounts are received within 1-7, while crypto and e-wallets take 1 business day.

Trading Platforms and Support: Tickmill supports MetaTrader 4 and 5, as well a proprietary Tickmill Mobile App. Tickmill offers customer support to traders via live chat, email and phone numbers in South Africa from 9AM to 10PM on business days.

Why choose a FSCA Regulated Forex Broker?

Choosing a FSCA-regulated forex broker in South Africa has some benefits. The FSCA regulation mandates forex brokers to protect your funds, ensure ethical practices, and offers clear channels for dispute resolution within South Africa in case you have an issue with a broker.

Forex brokers that are regulated in South Africa by FSCA are subject to strict oversight, which promotes a safer and more reliable trading environment. While forex trading always has some risk, FSCA regulation helps to minimize the risk associated with the forex broker practices.

Note that some forex brokers may be operating without regulation in South Africa, it is best to avoid such brokers as trading with them will be at your own risk with no protection from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

How Does FSCA Protect You?

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) is the financial regulator to issue licenses to forex brokers and other businesses in the financial sector. The aim of FSCA is to protect investors and traders based in South Africa and ensure financial service providers treat them fairly. Here are some of the ways FSCA regulations protect forex traders in South Africa.

1) Segregation of funds: One of the FSCA rules for forex brokers is for them to keep clients’ funds in a separate account different from the account used for running the operations of the company or broker. This means that the money you deposit into your trading account for investment is not saved in the same account the broker uses for operations. This is to ensure the safety of clients’ funds and prevent the broker from using your money for day to day running of their business.

2) Complaints Handling: The FSCA provides a channel for traders to lodge complaints against forex brokers that are practicing something that is not fair to clients. You can submit complaints and FSCA will take appropriate action to investigate the situation and resolve it and may issue some sanctions against the broker or compel them to compensate the trader.

These are some of the benefits of trading with FSCA-regulated forex brokers in South Africa. In jurisdictions where forex is unregulated or the laws are not strict, traders tend to lose more morning.

How do you check if the broker is regulated by FSCA?

It is important to find out if a forex broker is regulated before you create an account and start using their platform.

This is how to verify a forex broker’s FSCA regulation in simple steps. Let’s use HF Markets for the example:

Step 1) On the broker’s website, you should scroll to the bottom of the page to know if they are regulated by FSCA. All brokers usually state it. This is also important as their trading name may be different from the name they are regulated under. See an example with HF Markets below

Step 2) Go to the FSCA website at www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm.

Step 3) Type in the name of the broker, as seen on their website footer, in the search box and click ‘Submit’.

Step 4) The name of the broker will appear, and you can click on ‘Details’ to see more information about the broker such as the license date and approved products.

How to Manage Risks with Forex Trading

Forex trading involves risks and you could lose all your money, it is best that you avoid trading forex CFDs, unless you have experience and understand them.

In South Africa, the FSCA does not make it compulsory for forex brokers to offer negative balance protection, this means that you can lose more than the capital you invested and will be required to deposit additional money to clear the balance.

However, you can use the following strategies to manage the risks of trading:

1) Use lower leverage: While leverage can amplify profits, it can also increase your losses. It is advisable that you do not use all the leverage available to you, as this exposes you to more risks.

2) Use Stop Loss Orders: A stop-loss order automatically exits your trade position when the price reaches a level that you set, this helps to limit potential losses. Setting stop-loss orders helps to maintain discipline and prevents emotional trading decisions.

3) Position Sizing: Do not commit too much to a single trade. Allocate your capital in percentages for different trades, this ensures your account is diversified and can mitigate some risk if the market moves too fast against you.

4) Practice with a Demo Account: Ultimately, if you are starting out, before putting your real money and facing the risks, use demo accounts to learn more about the CFDs trading market and test your risk management strategies. This will allow you to experiment in a risk-free environment with risk-free virtual money.

5) Keep Learning and Stay Up-To-Date: The forex CFDs market is always changing due to several reasons and events. It is best to stay updated with recent economic news, central bank policies (of the currencies you are trading), and technical analysis techniques. This will help you to make informed decisions and change your risk management strategies as needed.

FAQs on Best FSCA Regulated Forex Brokers