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IG, established in the UK in 1974, is one of the biggest CFD brokers in the world. It is regulated by several bodies globally, including top-tier regulators like the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
IG is considered safe because it is listed on a stock exchange, discloses its financials and is overseen by top-tier regulators.
Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. CFDs are not provided for US clients. Forex trading involves risk. Losses can exceed deposits.
IG’s web trading platform is great for both beginners and professional traders. It is easy to use, has all the necessary functions and can be customized.
You can use either IG’s own trading platform or MetaTrader 4, a third-party trading platform. In this review, we tested IG’s own trading platform.
The web trading platform is available only in English.
Look and feel
The IG trading platform is one of the most intuitive and well-designed web trading platforms we have seen.
It can be easily customized and the flexible design allows you to move windows around and save layouts. You can create watchlists and there is also a one-click trading feature.
Login and security
You can easily set up two-factor authentication. To do so, download the ‘IG Authentication’ app on your mobile and activate the two-factor authentication.
Search functions
You can search for products in the sidebar on the left. It works as you would expect. You can also browse available investment options by typing manually or browsing through the asset class categories.
IG offers free and fast deposit and withdrawal options. There are various options for funding your account, including traditional methods such as wire transfer and credit card funding, as well as PayPal.
Account base currencies
At IG, you can choose from 6 base currencies: USD, GBP, AUD, EUR, SGD, HKD.
When you open an account, you cannot select your account base currency. You can change the currency of your account only if you write an email to IG’s Customer Service, which makes the whole process a bit inconvenient.
Why do base currencies matter? For two reasons. If you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your account base currency, you don’t have to pay a conversion fee.
A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. You can get great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.
Deposit fees and options
IG charges no deposit fees. In addition to bank transfers, you can also deposit money via credit/debit cards and PayPal.
In case of bank card deposit, IG accepts:
IG provides close to 24/7 customer support and gives relevant answers. However, email and phone can be slow, while the live chat is offline most of the time.
Overall, customer support could be better. You can contact IG via:
Email support is OK. We received mostly quick and relevant answers, but sometimes it took more than 2 days to get a reply.
The live chat is OK – if it is working. In earlier tests, we got relevant and fast answers in most cases, and there were only two occasions when we had to wait more than 3 minutes to be connected to an agent. However, in more recent tests, we found that the live chat was offline most of the time. Finding the live chat is not too easy – it is provided through IG’s UK website on the ‘Contact us’ page. Generally, it only pops up after spending around 30 seconds on the site.
IG’s phone support could be better. We tried to call IG several times, and sometimes could not connect to anyone even after 5-10 minutes of waiting.
Customer service is almost 24/7, you can contact them at all times, except for between 10 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday.
IG is regulated by several financial authorities globally, including top-tier regulators like the FCA in the United Kingdom. IG Group, the parent company of IG, is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Is IG regulated?
Yes, it is regulated by several financial authorities globally, including top-tier ones. Here is the full list:
UK – Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Germany – Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)
Switzerland – Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA)
USA – Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and National Futures Association (NFA)
Australia – Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
New Zealand – Financial Markets Authority (FMA)
Singapore – Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
Japan – Japanese Financial Services Authority (FSA)
South Africa – Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA)
UAE – Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)
International – Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA)
Is IG safe?
To be certain if a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:
IG is one of the biggest and most reliable CFD brokers worldwide. It is regulated by several financial authorities around the world and IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
On the other hand, forex and stock CFD fees are high and the product portfolio in most countries is limited to forex, CFDs and options. Customer support could be better.
Feel free to test IG’s first-class trading platform since there is no minimum funding amount and you can also easily open a demo account.
Please note that by investing in and/or trading financial instruments, commodities and any other assets, you are taking a high degree of risk and you can lose all your deposited money. You should engage in any such activity only if you are fully aware of the relevant risks. BrokerSelect does not provide investment or any other advice, for further information please read our General Terms and Conditions.