Brokers for United Kingdom Residents
Residents of the UK have two directions they can go when selecting a broker: Locally regulated brokers with UK offices, or foreign regulated brokers located offshore.
Local brokers are overseen by the FCA, the UK's national regulator, and the FCA is responsible for regulating not just forex but most local UK markets and tradable securities originating in the UK. By choosing a FCA regulated broker, you'll have a local regulatory body to work with should anything go wrong with your broker.
However, the FCA also sets leverage restrictions and trading account specifications very conservatively. Most forex pairs are hard limited to 30:1 leverage, and are classified as a CFD by the FCA. A lot of traders find this difficult to work with and opt for offshore alternatives when choosing a broker.
Most locally regulated brokers will be part of the FSCS, which insures client deposits in the event of broker insolvency. The max coverage per person for CFDs (again, forex is classified as a CFD in the UK,) will be £120k as of Dec 2025. However, this only applies to FCA regulated brokers with an office in the UK.
"Onshore" Brokers
Brokers with offices physically in the UK and who are registered and licensed by the FCA. These brokers will typically be part of the FSCS program and offer some insurance against the broker going bust. As well, it is more common for these brokers to offer free bank transfers for deposits and withdrawals with local UK banks.
On shore, FCA regulated with FSCS deposit protection but limited 30:1 leverage.:
Interactive Brokers UK
- UK branch of a larger US firm
- FCA set leverage and account restrictions (30:1 max and forex is classified as a CFD.)
- Minimum $2.5 USD commission per side of each trade, so not cost effective unless you're trading a minimum of $50k+ notional ticket size
- Platforms: Traders Workstation (proprietary)
- Deposit insurance through FSCS
Offshore brokers
Brokers who can service Canadian residents, can be well regulated with access to much higher leverage and tighter spreads, but lack deposit insurance and will likely have limited fee based funding methods.
- Brokers regulated by overseas entities like the FCA in the UK, or ASIC in Australia, still provide recourse should something go wrong. However, as Canadian residents, dealing with an overseas regulatory body may not be as easy as dealing with a local regulator should a complaint need to be made.
- Offshore deposit protection insurance programs exist but are not guaranteed by a local body. Your own due diligence is required here.
Pacific Union Prime
Pacific Union Prime has their roots in institutional forex trading services going back to 2015, and recently entered the retail forex industry by opening up their service to retail clients. They are a global broker with offices around the world, including a support team for UK residents, but are primarily based out of Australia. They accept UK clients and offer multiple UK banking options for deposit, making them easy to fund and fast to withdraw for UK residents.
- Regulation: ASIC regulated along with regulated offices in multiple other regions and are considered globally regulated
- Pricing: Much lower average spreads (0.0-0.2 average EUR/USD on Prime Account) compared to most other UK broker options
- Leverage: up to 1000:1 leverage (way higher than UK local brokers, though we at VolatilityRED recommend not employing leverage much higher than 100:1 even for active day traders
- Products: Forex, Metals, Crypto, Index, and Share CFDs, well over 200 CFD products in general (NOTE: shares trade like stocks with raw spreads but stock commissions per trade, this broker does a great job being competitive with Forex, but we encourage you to look at a proper stock broker if you are interested in share trading)
- Platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, WebTrader, and MT4/5 mobile
- Notes:
- Accounts denominated in GBP for UK clients, plus other major currency denomination options (EUR, USD, CAD, etc..)
- No fee Visa Debit, MasterCard Debit, and Credit Card deposits / withdrawals, and bank transfers through common electronic networks in the UK and Europe
Note on other offshore brokers
While many other offshore brokers exist, and some also take Canadians, it's important to remember the importance of sticking with well regulated brokers.
A troubling trend seen lately in the forex industry is when a broker will hold themselves out as well regulated (usually FCA,) but funnel Canadian clients to a division operating in a much more relaxed regulatory jurisdiction (often Cyprus, or Seychelles.)
The brokers listed above are well regulated and are upfront about their regulatory status.