Summary
IC Markets is licensed in the EU and Australia, but its international business runs through an entity in the Seychelles, and in 2024 CySEC fined its EU entity €200,000 for circumventing the EU’s retail CFD margin protections.
- Grade
- BBB
- Score
- 64/100
- Fieldwork
- 1 Oct 2026 to 2 Oct 2026
- Findings
- 1 high2 medium1 strength
Scorecard
| Pillar | Weight | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regulation & Licensing | 19% | A | |
| Corporate Structure & Ownership | 14% | BBB | |
| Client Money & Payouts | 19% | A | |
| Execution & Pricing | n/a | ||
| Conduct & Disclosure | 14% | BBB | |
| Operational Resilience | n/a | ||
| People & Community | 5% | C | |
| Overall | 71% | 64 | BBB |
The overall score is the weighted average of the assessed pillars, with their weights scaled back up to 100.
Findings
Regulation & Licensing
72/100The CySEC licence was confirmed on the register. The group also discloses an ASIC licence and a Seychelles entity, Raw Trading Ltd.
- StrengthIC Markets (EU) Ltd holds CySEC licence 362/18, issued 25 June 2018; the register lists icmarkets.eu and ic.com/eu as approved domains.
- MediumThe group’s international clients are served through Raw Trading Ltd, licensed by the FSA Seychelles (SD018), outside the main retail protection regimes.
Corporate Structure & Ownership
68/100The group is privately held. We did not review audited group accounts or a disclosure of ultimate ownership.
- ObservationGroup accounts and ultimate ownership were not available in the public sources reviewed.
Client Money & Payouts
72/100EU clients are covered by CySEC’s Investor Compensation Fund. Clients of the Seychelles entity have no equivalent scheme.
- MediumClients of Raw Trading Ltd (Seychelles) fall outside any investor compensation scheme.
Execution & Pricing
Not assessed in a desk audit. Spreads, slippage and fill quality can only be measured with live accounts.
Conduct & Disclosure
62/100CySEC fined the EU entity in 2024 over the circumvention of retail CFD margin protections. CySEC’s announcement links to a judicial review of the decision, whose outcome we did not review.
- HighOn 1 July 2024 CySEC decided to impose an administrative fine of €200,000 on IC Markets (EU) Ltd for non-compliance with article 42 of MiFIR, as it participated in activities that resulted in the circumvention of the requirements on initial margin protection under the national CFD restrictions (Directive DI87-09). The decision was announced on 19 July 2024.
Operational Resilience
Not assessed in a desk audit. Uptime, incident history and security controls require evidence from the firm or live monitoring.
People & Community
0/100No Great Place to Work certification and no documented community programme were found in public sources.
- ObservationNo Great Place to Work certification or community programme was found in public sources.
Licences verified
Each licence was checked directly against the regulator's public register on the date shown.
| Entity | Regulator | Licence | Checked | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IC Markets (EU) Ltd | CySEC | 362/18 | 2 Oct 2026 | ConfirmedApproved domains include www.icmarkets.eu. |
Notes and sources
Evidence and scope
Scope
Desk audit of the group’s client-facing entities, using public sources only: regulator registers and announcements, court and stock-exchange filings, and the firm’s own published documents, as available on 2 October 2026. No accounts were opened, nothing was tested live, and the firm was not asked for evidence.
Limitations
Absence of a public enforcement record is not evidence of good conduct. FCA and ASIC licence details are taken from the firm’s disclosures; the FCA and ASIC registers could not be queried directly for this audit and should be checked before publication. The outcome of the judicial review of CySEC’s 2024 decision was not reviewed. The share of clients served through the Seychelles entity could not be measured from public sources.
Evidence reviewed
- CySEC register entry, IC Markets (EU) Ltd
- CySEC board decision announcement, 19 July 2024
- IC Markets entity disclosures
Version history
- Report published.
- Methodology update: enforcement older than eight years is recorded but no longer scored, applied to all audits.
- Methodology update: People & Community pillar added (workplace certification and community contribution, from public sources), applied to all audits.
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