Swissquote vs IFC Markets 2024

Trust Score is a data-driven rating system that provides an at-a-glance rating of a broker’s overall trust by tracking 60+ brokers and over 100 regulatory jurisdictions across the globe. To make things clearer for everyday traders, we’ve created a five-tier system for regulators and Trust Score rating labels. Learn more about Trust Score, and check out our country guides to see the most trusted brokers in your country of residence.

Swissquote has a Trust Score of 99, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

IFC Markets has a Trust Score of 67, giving it a "High Risk" Trust Score Label.

Traders at Swissquote gain access to a balanced offering of easy-to-use proprietary trading platforms and popular third-party platforms like MetaTrader (both MT4 and MT5) and TradingView. Swissquote also delivers access to a staggering 3 million financial products, including stocks, options, futures, derivatives, ETFs, and structured products (though only a few hundred CFDs). With multiple Tier-1 regulatory licenses and a Trust Score rating of 99 (as well as the rare distinction of operating three banks), we consider Swissquote to be a highly trusted broker. It's worth noting that Swissquote's pricing is more expensive than what you'd find with low-cost forex brokers, and its forex account offers far fewer markets than Swissquote's eTrading account for share dealing.

IFC Markets is a long-standing brand with 17 years of operation. Traders will appreciate that IFC Markets delivers a growing range of markets, numerous trading platforms, and a decent balance of research and educational resources. That said, IFC Markets holds just one Tier-4 regulatory license; increasing its number of licenses would increase its Trust Score.

Tier-1 is reserved for the strictest, most stringent regulatory jurisdictions in the world. Tier-1 regulators impose additional capital requirements and require a tougher initial screening process. Swissquote holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Hong Kong (SFC Authorised), Singapore (MAS Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). IFC Markets, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: none. Neither have Australia (ASIC Authorised), Canada (CIRO Authorised), CBI Authorised (Ireland), Japan (SFC Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised), Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, Swissquote is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised), while IFC Markets is none.. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised), South Africa (FSCA Authorised) and Thailand (SEC Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses Swissquote is none, while IFC Markets is British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Bahamas (SCB Authorised), Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised), Mauritius (FSC Authorised) and Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).

Whether your broker develops its own proprietary platforms or provides access to popular third-party platforms, you should make sure you can use your preferred type of trading platform. In our testing, we found that both Swissquote and IFC Markets offer a Proprietary Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows). Neither have cTrader, DupliTrade and ZuluTrade

Both Swissquote and IFC Markets offer the whole MetaTrader suite, which consists of both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. If you’re new to MetaTrader 4 here’s our educational guide on how to use MT4.

Swissquote requires a minimum deposit of $1000, while IFC Markets requires a minimum deposit of $1. It's also important to ensure your broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. In our research, we've found that Swissquote supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for funding and deposit methods, whereas IFC Markets supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) and Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit)

When choosing a broker, it’s important to check the availability of your preferred investment products and asset classes. We’ve tested each broker’s individual offering of investments to help you pick the right broker for what you want to trade. We found that both Swissquote and IFC Markets offer Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Social Trading / Copy Trading, Metals, Energies, Agriculturals, ETF and U.S. Stocks (CFD). Neither have Spread Betting.

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; Swissquote offers 472, and IFC Markets offers a total of 630 tradeable symbols.

Crypto trading has become popular among forex traders across a range of international jurisdictions. As a result, many forex brokers now offer crypto products to their clients; most crypto assets are offered either as an underlying physical asset (such as when you own actual bitcoin assets, for example) or as a derivative product like a CFD. If you are looking to trade physical cryptocurrencies, you’ll find that Swissquote offers clients access to trading physical cryptocurrencies while IFC Markets does not.

Market research plays a huge role in any forex trader’s ability to conduct analysis within the global forex market. We test each broker’s research offering to help you decide which broker is right for your technical or fundamental analysis needs. Swissquote delivers the following research tools: Autochartist, Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. IFC Markets, on the other hand, provides the tools listed here: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts and Social Trading / Copy Trading. Neither have Trading Central (Recognia)

Broker Reviews