City Index review

Regulated by

FCA (446717); ASIC (AFSL 345646); MAS and other StoneX group regulators

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 446717

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Top-tier regulated banks

Negative balance protection

Yes for eligible retail clients

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; jurisdiction-dependent elsewhere

Audited by

Deloitte & Touche LLP at StoneX Group level

Not available to

United States for retail City Index offering and jurisdictions where services cannot legally be provided

The licence is what decides where your money sits and who is obliged to do something about it.

City Index holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA and MAS. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore applies some of the tightest conduct requirements in the region, and fewer firms hold its licence.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the MAS Financial Institutions Directory.

Legal entity

StoneX Financial Ltd

Company number

05616586

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

1983

Publicly listed

Parent company is publicly listed, NASDAQ: SNEX

Parent company

StoneX Group Inc.

Employees

4,000+ group-wide

Also trades as

City Index

Spread from

0.5 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 0.7 pips

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 1.1 pips

Commission

$0 on forex

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.7 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight financing may be charged or credited

Inactivity fee

£12 per month after 12 months of inactivity

Deposit fee

None internally

Withdrawal fee

Generally none internally

Currency conversion

0.5% on applicable realised P&L/charges

Cost is the last thing to weigh here, and never the thing that should decide it.

Spreads from 0.5 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

City Index lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Platforms

City Index Web Trader, City Index Mobile App, MetaTrader 4, TradingView

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Proprietary and MT4

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes, MT4

Copy trading

No conventional integrated copy-trading service

Indicators

80+ on proprietary platform; extensive TradingView/MT4 libraries

Third-party tools

TradingView, MetaTrader 4, Performance Analytics

API access

Yes, availability/entity dependent

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Markets

Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Interest Rates, Options

Currency pairs

80+

Total instruments

13,500+

Crypto CFDs

Jurisdiction-dependent; unavailable to UK retail clients

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market maker / principal

Execution speed

Approx. 0.02 seconds

Order types

Market, limit, stop, guaranteed stop-loss, trailing stop, OCO and platform-specific orders

Servers

Institutional global StoneX infrastructure

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

City Index covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, bonds, interest rates, options. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: debit card, credit card where permitted, bank transfer, paypal and jurisdiction-specific methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

Standard, MT4, Spread Betting, CFD, Professional, Corporate, Demo

Account currencies

GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and entity-dependent currencies

Islamic account

No

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

From 0.01 lots on applicable forex platforms

Time to open

Usually minutes, subject to verification

Deposit methods

Debit card, credit card where permitted, bank transfer, PayPal and jurisdiction-specific methods

Withdrawal methods

Cards, bank transfer, PayPal where supported

Deposit time

Cards/PayPal generally instant; bank transfers can take 1-3 business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 1-3 business days after processing

Minimum withdrawal

£100 or remaining account balance in UK

Local payment methods

Local bank transfer and region-specific methods

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, phone, email, Help & Support centre

Languages

Multilingual/entity-dependent

Telephone

+44 20 3194 1801, UK

Email

support@cityindex.co.uk

Live chat response

Typically within minutes

Education

Extensive: Trading Academy, courses, guides, webinars and platform tutorials

Research

Extensive: market news, technical/fundamental analysis, Trading Central and analyst commentary