Best ASIC regulated Australian Forex Brokers for 2024

Below you will find a list of Forex Brokers regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). The above-mentioned regulatory authority ensures that brokers conduct their business fairly and hold responsibility for safety of clients’ funds. Compared to different regulators in other countries, ASIC has very strict requirements for a broker company to get licensed, and closely monitor its business activity. Since the latest round of regulatory tightening in Australia in 2021, regulations for Forex & CFD brokers in Australia have become similar to those in Europe under ESMA rules.

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FP Markets FP Markets (2005) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 AUD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Cyprus Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 cTrader TradingView Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay Perfect Money Bitcoin Bitсoin Cash Ethereum Liteсoin Dash Ripple Tether Google Pay Apple Pay SticPay VantageFX VantageFX (2009) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 200 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Cayman Islands Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Bpay POLi AstroPay IC Markets IC Markets (2007) Leverage: up to 1:500 * Deposit: from 200 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Cyprus Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 cTrader TradingView Social Platform FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay BitPay Bpay POLi Klarna GO Markets GO Markets (2006) Leverage: up to 1:500 * Deposit: from 200 AUD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Cyprus Mauritius Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay Bpay POLi EightCap EightCap (2009) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Bahamas Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 TradingView Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Bitcoin Tether Bpay POLi CityIndex CityIndex (1983) Leverage: up to 1:30 Deposit: from 10 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK UAE Singapore Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds Interest Rates Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 TradingView Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Bpay FxOpen FxOpen (2005) Leverage: up to 1:500 * Deposit: from 1 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Saint Kitts and Nevis Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 TradingView Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay WebMoney Perfect Money Yandex Money Qiwi Bitcoin Ethereum Liteсoin RBK Money Intellect Money PaySafeCard Rakuten Securities Rakuten Securities (1999) Leverage: up to 1:30 Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Malaysia Hong Kong Japan Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Platforms: MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller UnionPay POLi Anzo Capital Anzo Capital (2015) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Belize Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay WebMoney Yandex Money Qiwi BitWallet POLi IG Markets IG Markets (1974) Leverage: up to 1:200 * Deposit: from 300 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Switzerland UAE Singapore Japan Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Interest Rates Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Bpay Oanda Oanda (2001) Leverage: up to 1:50 * Deposit: from 20 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia Canada US UK Singapore Japan Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Bonds Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal UnionPay Bpay IFS Markets IFS Markets (2008) Leverage: up to 1:400 Deposit: from 5 AUD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UAE Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay POLi AvaTrade AvaTrade (2007) Leverage: up to 1:400 * Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Ireland Poland South Africa UAE Japan British Virgin Islands Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Specific Social Platform Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Perfect Money iDeal Giropay AstroPay SafetyPay Klarna Przelewy24 ZotaPay Admiral Markets Admiral Markets (2001) Leverage: up to 1:1000 * Deposit: from 200 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Cyprus Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Bonds ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller UnionPay Trustly iDeal POLi AstroPay SafetyPay Klarna Przelewy24 ZotaPay XM Group XM Group (2009) Leverage: up to 1:888 Deposit: from 5 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Cyprus UAE Belize Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller WebMoney Yandex Money Qiwi Global Prime Global Prime (2010) Leverage: up to 1:100 Deposit: from 200 AUD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Seychelles Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 TradingView Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay Bpay POLi ZotaPay FXCM FXCM (1999) Leverage: up to 1:400 * Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia UK Germany France Italy South Africa Bermuda Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 TradingView NinjaTrader Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller UnionPay Google Pay Bpay POLi Klarna Axi Axi (2007) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 5 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK UAE Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay iDeal Sofort Bpay POLi Giropay CoreSpreads CoreSpreads (2014) Leverage: up to 1:30 Deposit: from 10 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Bonds Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards POLi CMC Markets CMC Markets (1989) Leverage: up to 1:500 * Deposit: from 200 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia New Zealand Canada UK Germany Singapore Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Interest Rates Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards POLi Aetos Aetos (2007) Leverage: up to 1:30 Deposit: from 250 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia UK Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller Plus500 Plus500 (2008) Leverage: up to 1:300 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia New Zealand UK Estonia Cyprus Singapore Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Platforms: Web Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill HighLow HighLow (2010) Leverage: up to --- Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  ---  --- Location: Australia Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Platforms: Web Binary Platform Wire Transfer Credit Cards Neteller Sofort POLi Giropay PaySafeCard BCR BCR (2008) Leverage: up to 1:400 Deposit: from 300 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia British Virgin Islands Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller UnionPay POLi INGOT Brokers INGOT Brokers (2006) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Bitcoin Ethereum Tether POLi Saxo Bank Saxo Bank (1992) Leverage: up to 1:30 Deposit: from 2000 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Switzerland Denmark UAE Singapore Hong Kong Japan Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Interest Rates Platforms: Web Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards Pepperstone Pepperstone (2010) Leverage: up to 1:200 Deposit: from 200 AUD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Germany Cyprus UAE Bahamas Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 cTrader Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Qiwi Bpay POLi Markets.com Markets.com (2008) Leverage: up to 1:300 * Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia UK Cyprus South Africa British Virgin Islands Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Specific Social Platform Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller iDeal Sofort Giropay Think Markets Think Markets (2010) Leverage: up to 1:500 * Deposit: from 5 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia New Zealand UK Cyprus South Africa UAE Japan Cayman Islands Mauritius Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller BitPay Bpay POLi MultiBank Group MultiBank Group (2005) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Austria Germany Spain UAE Singapore British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller UnionPay Perfect Money Bitcoin POLi PayTrust88 HFTrading HFTrading (2018) Leverage: up to 1:30 Deposit: from 250 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia New Zealand Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller IronFX IronFX (2010) Leverage: up to 1:1000 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia UK South Africa Bermuda Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay DotPay TMGM TMGM (2013) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia New Zealand Mauritius Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay POLi SticPay Alipay Trade Nation Trade Nation (2019) Leverage: up to 1:200 Deposit: from 10 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK South Africa Bahamas Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Stocks Bonds Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill VT Markets VT Markets (2016) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 200 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Cayman Islands Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay Tether Bpay POLi ACY Securities ACY Securities (2013) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks ETFs Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill UnionPay PayTrust88 One Royal One Royal (2006) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  mid  mid Location: Australia Cyprus Lebanon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Perfect Money Trustly Bitcoin Ethereum Ripple POLi PayTrust88 Switch Markets Switch Markets (2019) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 50 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Perfect Money Bitcoin Ethereum PayTrust88 SAM Trade SAM Trade (2015) Leverage: up to 1:1000 Deposit: from 10 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Platforms: MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Tether AximTrade AximTrade (2020) Leverage: up to 1:3000 Deposit: from 10 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia New Zealand Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: MetaTrader 4 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Tether Alipay Fusion Markets Fusion Markets (2010) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 20 AUD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Seychelles Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 cTrader Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller FasaPay Perfect Money SticPay AstroPay Capital.com Capital.com (2016) Leverage: up to 1:200 * Deposit: from 20 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia UK Cyprus Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 TradingView Specific FIX API (protocol) Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Skrill Neteller Trustly Qiwi iDeal Sofort POLi Giropay IconFX IconFX (2021) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 20 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 Specific Social Platform Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller Bitcoin Tether Mitrade Mitrade (2011) Leverage: up to 1:200 Deposit: from 10 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Cayman Islands Mauritius Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller POLi Blueberry Markets Blueberry Markets (2016) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller FasaPay UnionPay Perfect Money Bitcoin Ethereum Tether POLi SticPay PayTrust88 FXTrading.com FXTrading.com (2014) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: From 50 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards PayPal Neteller UnionPay POLi XS XS (2010) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 20 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Cyprus Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Softs Stocks Bonds Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Specific Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller Giropay Klarna DBG Markets DBG Markets (2007) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia South Africa Seychelles Vanuatu Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill UnionPay WebMoney Tether ETO Markets ETO Markets (2013) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Seychelles Instruments: Currencies Indices Metals Energies Platforms: MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards UnionPay Tether DNA Markets DNA Markets (2019) Leverage: up to 1:500 Deposit: from 100 USD Spreads:  low  low Location: Australia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Instruments: Currencies Crypto Indices Metals Energies Stocks Platforms: Web MetaTrader 4 MetaTrader 5 Wire Transfer Credit Cards Skrill Neteller Bitcoin Tether
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Who are ASIC-Regulated Brokers?

ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers are brokers that operate in the forex market from an Australian base. These brokers are licensed and authorized as financial service providers (FSPs) by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). ASIC is the regulator of the FX market in Australia, and all forex brokers operating in Australia must be licensed as financial service providers, with an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) number. The regulation of ASIC-regulated forex brokers is covered by the Corporate Plan of 2018 and upcoming years, which details what the Australian regulator expects its licensed entities to comply with.

The relevant components of this definition are as follows:

ASIC’s procedures for licensing brokers are quite strict, and prior to 2019, the regulator had not issued any new brokerage licenses in 2 years. That goes to show that companies which have the Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) have met the strict requirements set out for them by the Australian regulator and can be considered safe for retail forex trading.

Profile of ASIC-Regulated Australian Brokers

According to data recently released by the regulator, ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers have the following profile:

The statistics all point to one thing: trading FX and CFDs with ASIC-regulated Australian brokers is getting more popular by the day, thanks to the excellent trading conditions and top-notch regulation provided in the Australian environment. These brokers attract clients from all over the world, with clients from Asia dominating the space with nearly a fifth of the market share.

What is ASIC’s Mandate for its Regulated Brokers?

The mandate for ASIC-regulated Australian brokers centers predominantly on risk management for firms and their clients as well as consumer protection. ASIC urged its regulated brokers to deliver quality, independent trader education to arm their clients with sufficient information to manage risk, but has also gone further to deliver its product intervention to protect retail clients further.

Infographics: What is ASIC's mandate for its regulated brokers?

A) Risk Management

Following the market upheaval that occurred in January 2015 when the Swiss National Bank ended the Swiss peg to the Euro, ASIC immediately swung into action and asked all its regulated brokers to revise all risk management protocols that had been put in place for their firms and their clients. This call was made in response to the collapse of two brokerages as well as the calamitous losses suffered by many brokers across the world in the wake of the SNB’s decision. It was also rooted in the experience of some ASIC-regulated brokers that survived the market holocaust, having independently instituted their own in-house risk management mechanisms. These mechanisms were adopted wholesale and it was felt that ASIC-regulated brokerages had sufficient tools to manage such market-moving events should they occur in the future.

Some of these risk management protocols included the following:

The bulk of the clientele of ASIC regulated brokers comes from the Asian-Pacific region, where regulation of forex entities is a bit sketchy. ASIC desires to protect the clients of its regulated brokers from marketing campaigns put out by offshore brokers with weak or non-existent regulation.

However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the extreme market volatility that followed this event has forced ASIC to strengthen its regulatory protocols by delivering its product intervention, which has mandated brokers to cap leverage, increase the margin stop out level and implement other measures to protect the retail client base.

B) Ban on Bonuses and New Client Incentives

ASIC has traditionally frowned at the use of bonuses and incentives by brokers to as a marketing tool for attracting new clients. When bonuses were first introduced on European forex platforms, they were first used as a way of attracting new traders to the various forex platforms. But as is usually the case with products that are introduced without oversight, the end game soon changed from using bonuses as a marketing tool, to becoming a tool for incentivizing volume trading at the expense of the traders’ profitability. This came with a lot of abuse and ASIC was one of the first regulators to outlaw them completely. But the practice has continued, with ASIC releasing data to show that 225,000 traders received incentives to own and operate accounts.

ASIC has renewed its resolve to ensure that incentivized marketing for new accounts is ended. So if you are a trader on an ASIC-regulated platform, you are not likely to see any bonuses being offered either for account opening or for volume trading. This would allow you the freedom to trade at your convenience and only trade when you are sure of the market opportunity.

C) Consumer Enlightenment

ASIC also strives to ensure that consumers of forex products are enlightened and can understand to some extent, the products that they are trading. This enlightenment drive is being achieved via an online portal known as MONEYSMART. What ASIC strives to achieve with MONEYSMART platform is to deliver trader education from an independent standpoint, thereby reducing any element of bias or downplay of the risk element to trading as is sometimes the case when such education is provided by brokers.

The MONEYSMART portal has been expanded in recent years. The site now details how forex-related scams and other investment frauds are perpetrated, early warning signs of fraudulent brokerages or trading-related opportunities, and unlicensed brokers targeting the local trading community.

D) Investment Recovery

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is the ASIC-affiliated financial trading industry ombudsman where aggrieved consumers can and opt for free, fair and independent dispute resolution of complaints related to their financial trading brokers. AFCA maintains a list of complaints that they can handle, and those which are outside of their areas of jurisdiction.

Here is the list of complaints that AFCA can handle where it concerns ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers.

All traders who work with ASIC-regulated clients have the opportunity to get independent resolution of their complaints with AFCA.

E) ASIC Connect

ASIC Connect is the online professional register that details the full list of licensed AFS companies as well as individuals working in the financial services industry as licensed professionals. Consumers get to see if any action has been taken against any of these companies or individuals in the past.

What Can Traders Expect from an ASIC-Regulated Broker?

At the time the original article was written, ASIC was one of the regulators which had resisted the changes that regulators in the EU and UK had made to trading conditions on FX and CFD assets. However, this era is now gone as ASIC has finally towed the line of these regulators.

In 2020, ASIC responded to the increased volatility in the financial markets due to the COVID-10 pandemic by announcing new restrictions on the retail trading of CFDs, which took effect on March 29, 2021. These changes, which ASIC announced in a “product intervention order” were as follows:

1) Leverage offered by ASIC-regulated brokers was capped at 1:30, instead of the previous leverage maximum of 1:500. Assets with greater volatility will be subjected to more stringent leverage caps. Therefore, the leverage cap structure for all ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers is now as follows:

Notice that unlike in the EU and UK where the leverage cap is different for major currencies and minor/exotic currencies, the 1:20 leverage cap prescribed by ASIC for currency trading covers ALL currency pairs.

2) All ASIC-regulated brokers in Australia are now to provide their clients with negative balance protection. In essence, traders can no longer lose more than their account balance if there is excessive slippage that causes stops not to be honoured. This move according to ASIC, is to prevent a repeat of the aftermath of the collapse of the Swiss Franc in January 2015 after it was de-pegged from the Euro by the Swiss National Bank.

3) Binary options are to be banned completely, and ASIC-regulated brokers have been asked to cease offering this product.

4) ASIC-regulated Australian brokers will not be mandated to provide issuer-specific risk warnings and risk disclaimers about the percentage of traders who lose money trading FX and CFDs. This represents a critical and dramatic deviation from similar requirements in the UK and the European Union.

Institutional clients of these brokerage firms, also known as wholesale clients, continue to be exempt from these new restrictions.

As a result of these new restrictions, ASIC-regulated brokers started to inform their clients of the changes, and those with offshore locations started to offer their non-resident account holders the option of migration to these offshore locations which are not bound by the new restrictions.

ASIC has also gone ahead to prescribe penalties of up to 5 years in prison for individual defaulters within the brokerages, and fines of up to AUS$555 million for brokers that do not comply with the new regulations. The ASIC Commissioner, Cathie Armour, has also promised to crack down on attempts by brokers to evade the new restrictions by falsely classifying retail trading clients as wholesale clients.

ASIC continues to maintain bilateral communication with foreign regulators to ensure that scam brokerages do not use the Australian market as their safe haven. In this regard, ASIC has entered into an agreement with the Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA) to prevent bilateral marketing of forex products between companies located in both countries.

What can traders expect when trading with ASIC-regulated brokers?

Infographics: What can traders expect when trading with ASIC-regulated brokers?

A) Low Leverage

ASIC-regulated brokers will now offer a maximum leverage cap of 1:20. Traders with brokerages that have offshore locations can apply for redirection to these offshore locations, but this could strip them of the protections that ASIC and AFCA offer.

B) Independent Dispute Resolution Mechanism

Aggrieved consumers of financial products from ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers now have access to independent dispute resolution from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA is directly supervised by ASIC.

C) Account Segregation

Traders’ funds will continue to enjoy segregation with the Tier-1 banks in Australia.

D) Trader Incentives

No bonuses will be provided. ASIC has been lax in enforcing this in the past, but this looks set to change.

E) Trader Insurance

The National Guarantee Fund will continue to provide clients of ASIC-regulated Australian forex brokers with trader insurance. The fund can provide compensation to investors who have been proven to have been shortchanged by their brokers, after investigation by ASIC.

F) ECN Trading Conditions

Many ASIC-regulated brokers now offer ECN trading conditions, complete with the chance to trade with a FIX API. Using a FIX API removes forex trading from the retail forex platforms, and instead connects the trader directly to a liquidity provider. This has the advantages of providing faster speeds, direct access to institutional liquidity and ensuring confidentiality of your trading strategies.

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