Saxo Bank A/S is a licensed Danish bank, not just a broker, reporting roughly USD 118bn in client assets. Ownership changed hands in 2024 when J. Safra Sarasin Group acquired a majority stake from Geely and Mandatum. Worth knowing: Saxo has been actively retrenching from APAC since mid-2024 -- it stopped onboarding new clients in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan, closed its Hong Kong/Shanghai offices, and agreed to sell the majority of its Australian business -- so its regulatory footprint outside the UK and Singapore should be reconfirmed rather than assumed current.
| Regulated entity | Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd |
|---|---|
| Regulation | FCA No. 551422 |
| Other Tier-1 regulators | MAS |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Minimum deposit | Not independently confirmed |
| Avg. spread (EUR/USD) | Not independently confirmed |
| Platforms | SaxoTraderGO, SaxoTraderPRO |
| Instruments | 72,000+ instruments across stocks (23,000+), bonds (5,200+), ETFs (7,400+), mutual funds (18,300+), forex (185+ pairs plus 45+ FX vanilla options), listed options (20+ exchanges), futures (250+), and CFDs (8,600+ on stocks/indices/forex/commodities), per Saxo's own partner/product pages. |
See Saxo's full regulation dossier → · How to check whether a forex broker is regulated
Derived from the same confirmed data behind this broker's score (regulation, cost, platforms, deposit minimum) -- not a separate editorial judgment.
Via its FCA-regulated UK entity, eligible clients are covered by the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000 per person if the firm fails.
Beyond the headline spread and minimum deposit above. Where our research hasn't independently confirmed a specific detail, we say so rather than guess -- verify directly with the broker before relying on it.
| Account types | Classic (no minimum deposit under current UK policy, per recent sources -- older sources cite a $10,000 minimum, which appears outdated for the UK entity), Platinum (£200,000 deposit or 120,000 loyalty points), and VIP (£1,000,000+). |
|---|---|
| Execution model | As a licensed bank, Saxo generally acts as principal/market-maker for most retail CFD and FX flow with institutional-grade pricing, rather than operating as a pure ECN broker. |
| Withdrawals & deposits | No withdrawal fee except when transferring a position to a competing broker; card deposits may carry a fee depending on country. The UK entity's previous £7.95 custody and platform fees have reportedly been removed. |
| Overnight financing (swap) | Two components: tom/next swap points derived from Tier-1 bank quotes with a client-specific markup, and financing on unrealized profit/loss at a daily benchmark overnight rate plus or minus a markup (reported around 2.00%). Saxo uses Alternative Reference Rates as the benchmark input, falling back to a money-market or policy rate where none exists. |
| Currency conversion cost | 0.25% on the FX spot mid-price at the time of conversion, applied across account types -- reportedly cut down from a higher legacy rate in a January 2024 fee restructuring. |
| Inactivity fee | Sources conflict: more recent material suggests no inactivity fee currently applies, while an older source cites a fee around $100-equivalent -- this may reflect a genuine policy change (Saxo announced a broad fee cut in January 2024) rather than an ongoing disagreement. |
| Customer service | 24/5 support via phone, chat and support tickets. Trustpilot rates it around 3.7/5 from roughly 9,000 reviews -- notably more mixed than most other brokers researched so far. |
| Mobile experience | SaxoTraderGO ratings vary by region -- around 4.0/5 (roughly 6,250 reviews) on one country's App Store versus 4.5/5 (435 reviews) on another's, with no single global figure found. |
| Educational offering | Offers beginner-to-advanced video content covering FX and CFDs, generally regarded as comprehensive given Saxo's institutional positioning, though independent commentary on depth relative to education-focused brokers wasn't found in detail. |
See how Saxo's spread cost compares across every researched broker → · Forex broker fees explained
Is Saxo regulated?
Yes -- FCA No. 551422. See the regulation dossier on this page for the underlying licence numbers.
Is my money protected if Saxo fails?
Via its FCA-regulated UK entity, eligible clients are covered by the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000 per person if the firm fails.
What is the minimum deposit at Saxo?
Not independently confirmed in our research -- verify directly with the broker.
What trading platforms does Saxo offer?
Saxo offers SaxoTraderGO, SaxoTraderPRO.
What is Saxo's average spread on EUR/USD?
Not independently confirmed in our research -- verify directly with the broker.
When was Saxo founded?
Saxo was founded in 1992.
How is Saxo's overall score calculated?
Saxo currently scores 3.25/5 overall under our disclosed nine-category methodology -- regulation & client protection 30%, trading costs 20%, non-trading fees 10%, platforms & tools 10%, execution/trading conditions 10%, product range 5%, deposits/withdrawals 5%, transparency 5%, track record 5%. It is not a comparison to other brokers and not based on hands-on testing.
A dated log of when our own published data about this broker actually changed -- not a reconstructed history of what the broker itself did. See the full change log tool for every broker.
EU clients typically served under Central Bank of Ireland / MiFID passporting rather than a direct CySEC CIF licence -- worth confirming which entity applies to you.
Publicly listed on Nasdaq (IBKR) and an S&P 500 constituent, Interactive Brokers is one of the largest electronic brokers globally by client equity, with access to 150+ markets worldwide. Founder Thomas Peterffy remains Chairman. Widely regarded as a low-controversy, Category-A-regulator-only broker relative to CFD-focused peers.
ThinkMarkets is a dual-headquartered (Melbourne/London) group founded in 2010 by brothers Nauman and Faizan Anees, in which each of its major-jurisdiction licences (FCA, ASIC, FSCA, DFSA, FMA) sits in a different legal entity from its CySEC-licensed European arm.