Find your entity, currency costs or protection
A currency balance, leveraged forex and an FX CFD are different products
Before comparing IBKR’s forex pricing, identify what you intend to do: exchange cash for a purchase, borrow to hold a currency position, or trade a derivative. Then identify the company carrying that product.
- Currency conversion
- The spot-currency guide describes exchanging one currency for another. Settlement is typically T+2, with exceptions for currencies, holidays and time zones. A converted balance is different from an unsettled trade; check available cash and borrowing before placing a securities order.
- Cash Forex: leveraged currency trading
- IBKR’s forex-margin page requires Eligible Contract Participant status for Cash Forex in IBLLC accounts, UK accounts carried by IBLLC and fully disclosed broker accounts. Do not treat an ordinary account opening or a conversion feature as approval to trade leveraged forex. Ask which permission applies to your account.
- FX CFDs
- The UK CFD product page describes derivatives rather than delivery of the underlying currency. Overnight financing is part of the cost. Product availability and customer classification must be checked separately from conversion pricing.
The UK agreement does not cover every asset in the group
The IBUK Carried Products agreement is headed 18 June 2026 and states terms effective from 14 July 2025. Subject to eligibility, it includes FX Spot, CFDs and certain derivatives. It explicitly excludes stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other products held with Interactive Brokers LLC, which require a separate account and agreement. Part G concerns enabled currency features; Schedule 1 concerns enabled CFDs.
Save a product-to-company map. Ask IBKR to confirm, in writing, the contracting company, company carrying the asset, customer category and agreement for each product you plan to use. One login or brand name is not enough to establish the same legal treatment across those products.
Match the company, status and activity
| Company | Official record | What the record establishes |
|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited | FCA 208159 | Authorised since 6 February 2002. The separate MLRs registration dates from 12 June 2023; that field is not a blanket investment permission or crypto compensation guarantee. |
| Interactive Brokers LLC | NFA 0258600 | BASIC displays NFA Member Approved, CFTC Futures Commission Merchant registration and Forex Dealer Member designation. The FDM approval history starts 19 April 2012. |
| Interactive Brokers Singapore Pte. Ltd. | MAS institution profile | CMS licensee: dealing in securities, collective investment schemes, exchange-traded and OTC derivatives, and spot FX for leveraged trading; also product financing and custody. This review has not assessed its complete customer agreement. |
The FCA record lists 20 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BY and www.interactivebrokers.co.uk. It also links warnings about clone firms. Those warnings concern impersonators; they do not establish wrongdoing by the genuine company. Check the exact domain and contact details independently, then read the permissions for the intended activity and customer category.
NFA BASIC separately lists regulatory actions, arbitration decisions and reparations cases. Their existence is not a single measure of current customer losses. Individual findings, dates and outcomes have not been reviewed here. The NFA guide explains how to follow the record into those documents.
The MAS profile’s contact address is 1 Harbourfront Place, #12-01 Harbourfront Tower 1, Singapore 098633. The activities on that Singapore entry do not extend UK or US permissions to a Singapore contract. Australia and the group’s other jurisdictions need their own record and agreement review.
A minimum commission changes the small-conversion calculation
The spot-currency fee schedule starts at 0.20 basis point of trade value for monthly volume up to US$1 billion, with a US$2 minimum per order. That rate is 0.002%. Auto-conversion typically adjusts the otherwise applicable exchange rate by 0.03%, at IBKR’s discretion, with no separate commission.
| Conversion value | Manual: max(value × 0.002%, $2) | Auto: value × 0.03% reference adjustment |
|---|---|---|
| US$1,000 | US$2.00 | US$0.30 |
| US$10,000 | US$2.00 | US$3.00 |
| US$100,000 | US$2.00 | US$30.00 |
These figures exclude the actual exchange quote, timing, financing and account-specific tax or additional charges. Published direct-client rates can differ for introduced or adviser-managed accounts and can change. “No separate commission” does not mean no conversion cost. Check the order preview and resulting statement.
An overnight FX CFD is a separate cost calculation
The UK forex-CFD financing schedule uses the currency-specific benchmark and spread, quote-currency contract value and daily interest. Financing is calculated independently of spot-FX balances. It lists an additional 1% spread for retail clients under its MiFID treatment. Its historical worked examples are not current benchmark rates.
Request a dated estimate for your exact instrument and holding period. Retain the commission basis, financing rate, settlement date and any negative-cash interest separately. Comparing one advertised spread with another account’s total invoice gives an incomplete picture.
Ask what is held, where it is held and which loss is covered
UK retail CFD protection has a product boundary
Schedule 1, section 7.2.3 of the Carried Products agreement limits a retail client’s CFD liability to assets dedicated to CFD trading. Section 7.3.3 excludes professional clients from negative balance protection. This is not a promise that every IBKR product or account cannot develop a shortfall. Ask about margin, liquidation and transfers between connected accounts before enabling another product.
Do not rely on the old £50,000 asset-protection figure
An older IBUK customer-asset disclosure remains accessible and gives a £50,000 investment-compensation maximum tied to defaults from January 2010. That figure should not be presented as the current general investment limit.
FSCS’s current investment guidance gives up to £85,000 per eligible person, per firm for failures after 1 April 2019. Coverage depends on the authorised firm, regulated activity and eligible claim; poor investment performance is excluded. Obtain confirmation for your exact product and carrying company. This is not automatic coverage of all group assets.
SIPC is not forex-loss insurance
IBUK’s current disclosures identify IBLLC as a SIPC member. SIPC’s own scope concerns missing customer securities and qualifying cash when a member broker fails: up to US$500,000, including a US$250,000 cash limit. It does not reimburse market losses or cover foreign-exchange trades. Commodity futures are generally excluded, with a specific portfolio-margin-account exception.
Cash held to buy securities can qualify even when denominated in another currency. That does not turn a forex position into a protected security. Identify the securities account and custodian; do not transfer a US securities protection figure to IBUK, a futures account or every non-US affiliate.
Attach the complaint to the product’s company
For an IBUK matter, the complaints policy recommends Client Portal → Help → Support Center → Message Center → Compose → New Ticket. It also accepts [email protected], asking for “COMPLAINT” in the subject, or a letter to Complaints Handling, Floor 12, 20 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 3BY.
The policy describes acknowledgement usually within five business days, an update if unresolved after four weeks, and an intended final response within eight weeks or an explanation of the delay. An eligible complaint may go to FOS if the response is unsatisfactory or eight weeks pass without a final response. The policy states six months from the final response for referral; check your eligibility and actual deadline.
- Identify: name the legal company, product, account category and relevant agreement in your complaint.
- Document: retain trade identifiers, timestamps with time zones, statements, order previews and the precise disputed charge or instruction. Share account documents through an appropriate private channel.
- Track: keep the filing receipt, written response and referral deadline. State the remedy you are requesting without treating acceptance of a ticket as agreement to pay.
For an IBLLC futures or forex matter, use the NFA guide to distinguish conduct reporting from a monetary dispute route. A Singapore matter requires the Singapore institution’s process and applicable eligibility review; do not apply the UK FOS deadline globally. An FXCN report does not file with a regulator or preserve a legal deadline.
Questions and scope of this review
Does NFA membership mean I can trade leveraged Cash Forex?
No individual trading approval has been checked. Membership identifies a company and its regulatory categories; eligibility, enabled permissions and the actual agreement are separate checks.
Is the automatic conversion always cheaper?
The example illustrates fee arithmetic, not a universal recommendation. Quotes, timing, account terms and borrowing can change the result. Compare the preview and statement for the same transaction.
Were trading speed, withdrawals or the scores below retested?
No. FXCN has not opened a funded account, traded, measured execution, tested withdrawals or revalidated the historical scoring inputs for this review.
The historical scoring table below still includes an ASIC 245574 evidence link. It has not been reverified in this review; use a current Australian register lookup to establish permissions rather than treating that older link as current evidence.
What has not been reviewed?
The complete global entity and contract set, all permissions, individual regulatory cases, live account availability and the other language introductions remain outside this review. The UK agreement was inspected for selected product, liability and account-boundary clauses; this is not a full legal review.
