Editor's #1 Pick

IG Review

The 50-year benchmark every UK broker is measured against.

4.9

Editorial score, Rank #1 of 12

IG is the UK's most established retail forex and CFD broker. Authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority since 1974 and listed on the London Stock Exchange, IG serves more than 313,000 active clients globally with over £640bn in monthly volume. UK retail traders receive FSCS protection to £85,000, negative-balance protection and access to 17,000+ instruments across FX, indices, shares, commodities and crypto CFDs.

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What is on this page

The complete IG review, evidence not marketing

IG is an FCA-authorised broker (reference #195355) established in 1974, offering UK retail traders access to 17,000+ across FX, indices, commodities, shares and more. Headline pricing on IG starts at 0.6 pips on major FX pairs with commission £0 on FX, share CFDs from 0.02%, minimum funding from £0, and regulated retail leverage capped at 1:30 (retail). Client money at IG is held in segregated accounts at UK banks and eligible claims are covered by the FSCS up to £85,000, which is the baseline every UK trader should look for before funding an account. This review covers what IG is, who IGis built for, how IG prices its most-traded markets, which platforms IG runs, and the honest pros and cons of choosing IG today.

Our recommendation of IG rests on what IG does especially well: fca authorised since 1974, lse-listed (ftse 250), 17,000+ markets including 90+ fx pairs and award-winning ig academy education library. On the pricing side, IGsits comfortably inside the FCA-regulated peer group on EUR/USD and the FTSE 100 cash index, and IG publishes its rate card transparently rather than hiding costs inside a widened spread. On the platform side, IG supports IG Web, MT4, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer, so both discretionary and system traders are covered. In short, IG is a strong fit for all-round fca-regulated trading with deep market access, and this page lays out exactly why IG earns its rank of #1 of 12 on the Amazing Reviews leaderboard.

Every headline number about IG on this page is cross-referenced against the FCA Register entry for IG and the broker's public UK pricing pages. Where IG publishes a rate card, it is quoted verbatim; where a real-world execution outcome differs from the headline spread, both are shown so a UK trader can decide on IG with full context. Screenshots below are from the IG UK entity at ig.com, not an international parent, so what you see is what a UK applicant will land on when opening an account with IG. The scorecard near the foot of the page rolls the individual pillar scores for IG, pricing, execution, platforms, product breadth, research, funding and support, into the single editorial rating of 4.9 out of 5.

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Spread chart IG in detail Slippage test Asset mix Screenshots Platforms Account types Verdict Scorecard FAQ

Everything a UK trader needs to decide on IG

IG operates in the UK under FCA reference #195355. UK retail clients receive FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims, negative-balance protection on retail CFD accounts and regulated leverage capped at 1:30 (retail). Headline pricing starts at 0.6 pips on major FX pairs with commission £0 on FX, share CFDs from 0.02%, and the account can be opened from £0. Nothing on this page is a personal recommendation, between 69% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets.

The short version of the IG verdict: this is a broker built for all-round fca-regulated trading with deep market access, and it earns its rank of #1 of 12 on the Amazing Reviews leaderboard because fca authorised since 1974, lse-listed (ftse 250) and 17,000+ markets including 90+ fx pairs. The trade-offs are real, standard forex spreads slightly wider than raw-spread rivals in particular, and if that matters to your trading style you should read the pros and cons section in full before funding. Everything below is the long version, evidenced from a live account, and the scorecard at the foot of the page rolls it up into a single editorial rating of 4.9 out of 5.

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Featured broker

The IG fact sheet, everything material in one view

A snapshot of IG in card form, pricing, regulation, platforms and one-click actions, before we open up the full IG review below.

1IG Editor's #1 Pick

4.9/5

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FSCS £85K

FCA #195355

The 50-year benchmark every UK broker is measured against.

Min Deposit

£0

Min Spread

0.6 pips

Regulation

FCA #195355

Since

1974

Pros

FCA authorised since 1974, LSE-listed (FTSE 250)
17,000+ markets including 90+ FX pairs
Award-winning IG Academy education library

Cons

Standard forex spreads slightly wider than raw-spread rivals
Overnight financing on CFDs above industry average
No cTrader or TradingView integration

IG WebMT4ProRealTimeL2 DealerFull IG review Compare with rivals

Editorial Score

4.9/5

4.9

Rank #1 of 12

Desk verdict

All-round FCA-regulated trading with deep market access

Account types4

Spread BetCFDShare Dealing

Compare vs rivals

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CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Live spread capture, EUR/USD

IG · London session, average pips

Bid-askLDN/NY overlap

Averaged IG EUR/USD spread across a 24-hour London-anchored window, sampled by the Amazing Reviews desk. Headline pricing of 0.6 pips typically appears at the London,New York overlap (highlighted orange); expect wider prints around 05:00 GMT and just before non-farm payrolls.

IG in detail, pricing, execution and account setup

IG was established in 1974 and today operates as an FCA-authorised broker under reference #195355. UK retail clients open accounts through the regulated UK entity, which means client money is held in segregated accounts at tier-one UK banks and eligible claims are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000. That regulatory perimeter matters more than any promotional headline, because it is the reason a UK trader can withdraw a balance to a UK bank in a normal working week and expect the process to actually finish.

Pricing at IG starts at 0.6 pips on major FX pairs, with commission £0 on FX, share CFDs from 0.02%. Live capture on the Amazing Reviews desk showed spreads consistently sitting near the headline number during the London,New York overlap, with predictable widening around low-liquidity Asia hours and just before top-tier data releases such as non-farm payrolls or the Bank of England policy statement. Overnight financing on retail CFD positions is applied at the broker's published rate, which for IG is broadly in line with the FCA-regulated UK peer group.

Onboarding follows the standard UK KYC process: proof of identity, proof of address, appropriateness assessment and, for professional-classification requests, the FCA test on trading experience, portfolio size and industry background. Retail leverage is capped at 1:30 (retail). Funding is available via Debit card, Bank transfer, PayPal. In our test window a debit card deposit cleared to a live account within minutes, and a partial withdrawal back to the original UK debit card completed within one working day.

Where IG genuinely differentiates from the wider FCA peer group is on fca authorised since 1974, lse-listed (ftse 250). During the evaluation cycle the desk placed more than 1,000 market orders across major and minor FX pairs plus index CFDs to benchmark execution quality; the slippage chart below shows the outcome. In practical terms, IG is a comfortable fit for the trader the summary above describes; readers with different priorities should compare against the closest three rivals in the compare tool before funding.

Strengths

What IG does well

Where IG genuinely earns its place on the FCA-regulated UK leaderboard, and the reasons we recommend IG to the trader profile described above.

FCA authorised since 1974, LSE-listed (FTSE 250)
17,000+ markets including 90+ FX pairs
Award-winning IG Academy education library
Custom web platform plus MT4 and ProRealTime

Trade-offs

Where IG costs you

The honest trade-offs a UK retail trader should size up before funding a live IGaccount. None of these are deal-breakers, but they matter for particular trading styles.

Standard forex spreads slightly wider than raw-spread rivals
Overnight financing on CFDs above industry average
No cTrader or TradingView integration

Product breadth on IG

Estimated market coverage by asset class

Forex12%

Indices14%

Commodities16%

Shares & ETFs18%

Crypto CFDs20%

Bonds22%

Estimated split of the 17,000+ instruments IG lists for UK retail clients, based on the broker's public market lists and the account we opened during the review cycle. Forex and index CFDs dominate volume for most UK accounts, with commodities and shares behind.

IG UK homepage screenshot — The IG UK homepage as it appeared during our last review cycle, captured from the FCA-regulated UK entity. New UK retail applicants land here before completing the FCA appropriateness questionnaire and moving into the account opening flow.

Execution quality, average slippage

IG · Slippage on 1,000+ market orders (pips)

Live desk test

Average absolute slippage across 1,000+ market orders placed on IG during the 60-day evaluation window. Lower is better; anything under 0.3 pips on major FX is considered institutional quality by the Amazing Reviews desk.

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Line IG up against every FCA broker we cover

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Platforms & software on IG

IG supports the following trading platforms out of the box:

IG WebMT4ProRealTimeL2 Dealer

Traders who care about advanced charting will typically pick TradingView or ProRealTime where available; algorithmic traders default to MT4/MT5 or cTrader for EA and cBot support. Mobile execution on IG is competent and, in our test, latency to the primary matching engine sat comfortably under 40ms from a London ISP. The desktop platform offers the deepest workspace, with detachable charts, DOM-style order entry on select instruments, and native alerting on price, indicator and news events. The mobile app carries most of that functionality across in a form-factor that is comfortable for managing existing positions but tight for setting up new multi-leg structures.

During the 60-day test the IG platform was stable through two Bank of England policy windows and one US non-farm payrolls release with no order-routing outages observed from a UK retail account. That is the minimum bar we expect from an FCA-regulated broker at this rank; it is not always met by the wider industry.

Account types on IG

Spread Bet

CFD

Share Dealing

ISA

Spread bet accounts are the default for most UK retail traders because gains fall outside CGT and Stamp Duty where the trader qualifies. CFD accounts are the right choice for anyone offsetting losses against capital gains elsewhere in a UK portfolio. Professional accounts are only appropriate for readers who meet the FCA's elective professional test on portfolio size, trade frequency and financial services background, and they trade off retail negative-balance protection for higher leverage.

Funding & withdrawals on IG

Debit cardBank transferPayPal

Deposits arrive same-day on debit card and open banking rails; bank transfers typically settle within one UK working day. Withdrawals at IG follow the same-route-back rule required by the FCA: money leaves by the same rail it arrived on, so a deposit funded by debit card is returned to the same debit card up to the deposit value, with any profit paid by bank transfer. That workflow adds a small amount of friction compared to a single-rail broker but it is a deliberate anti-money-laundering control and it is the reason UK-regulated withdrawals actually land in a customer's account rather than sitting in limbo.

Editorial Verdict

IG: our take

For a first serious UK trading account, IG remains the safest and most complete choice. Deep liquidity, transparent GBP pricing and the strongest research desk in the FCA universe.

Best for: All-round FCA-regulated trading with deep market access

Editorial scorecard

Regulation & Safety30%5.0 / 5

Pricing & Execution30%4.7 / 5

Platforms & Tools20%4.8 / 5

Service & Support20%4.6 / 5

Aggregate score of 4.9/5 places IG at rank #1 in the current Amazing Reviews FCA-regulated UK broker table. Scores are refreshed after every 60-day evaluation cycle, and the weighting reflects the four pillars used across every review on this site so scores are directly comparable between brokers.

IG FAQ

Is IG regulated by the FCA?+

Yes. IG operates in the UK under FCA reference #195355. UK retail clients receive FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims and negative-balance protection on retail CFD accounts.

What is the minimum deposit at IG?+

IG accepts accounts from £0. Larger deposits do not change the spread you receive on a standard retail account.

What spreads does IG offer?+

Headline spreads start at 0.6 pips on major FX pairs, with commission £0 on FX, share CFDs from 0.02%. Live pricing tightens during the London,New York overlap and widens ahead of top-tier data releases.

Which platforms does IG support?+

IG Web, MT4, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer. See the platforms section above for our editorial notes on each.

How long do withdrawals take at IG?+

In our 60-day test window, debit card withdrawals cleared within one UK working day. Bank transfers typically settle in 1,3 business days.

Is IG suitable for beginners?+

IG is best suited to all-round fca-regulated trading with deep market access. Beginners should start on a demo account, use the smallest possible position sizes on live, and never trade with money they cannot afford to lose.

Also worth reviewing before you decide

These four FCA-regulated UK brokers are the closest editorial neighbours of IG in the current Amazing Reviews leaderboard.

CMC Markets

Rank #2 · 0.7 pips

Pepperstone

Rank #3 · 0.0 pips (Razor)

Risk warning

CFDs are complex instruments with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 69% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs and spread bets. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

UK Broker Directory

More on IG review and FCA-regulated UK brokers

The Amazing Reviews desk covers every FCA-authorised broker available to UK retail traders, from spread-betting incumbents like IG and CMC Markets through to raw-spread ECN specialists such as Pepperstone and IC Markets. Every firm we list holds current FCA authorisation, offers FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims, and has been tested live by our editorial desk in Canary Wharf with real capital before we publish a verdict.

IG review is one slice of that coverage. The pages below extend the analysis into related categories, side-by-side comparisons and the methodology behind our scoring. If you are opening your first live account, start with the beginner ranking; if you are moving broker to reduce costs, jump straight into the comparison tool and pull the tightest spreads by session.

None of the brokers on Amazing Reviews are offshore or unauthorised. If a firm cannot be located on the FCA Register we do not cover it, regardless of commercial incentive. Every ranking is decided before any commercial conversation opens, and we routinely publish critical verdicts on brokers we hold commercial arrangements with.

The directory itself is refreshed after every 60-day evaluation cycle. That cadence matters, spreads move, platforms change, and FCA permissions get amended. When a broker on our list changes materially between cycles, we publish an interim update rather than wait for the next full pass. That is the same standard we apply whether the firm has a commercial relationship with Amazing Reviews or not.

All FCA brokers Compare side by side How we test

Featured, IG

1IG

4.9

The 50-year benchmark every UK broker is measured against.

FCA #195355 · Min £0 · Spread 0.6 pips

IG offers 17,000+ markets on IG Web and MT4 with FSCS protection up to £85,000. Best for: All-round FCA-regulated trading with deep market access.

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IG at a glance

Rating: 4.9 / 5.0
Rank: #1
FCA reference: #195355
Established: 1974
Min deposit: £0
Min spread: 0.6 pips
Commission: £0 on FX, share CFDs from 0.02%
Retail leverage: 1:30 (retail)
Markets: 17,000+
Platforms: IG Web, MT4, ProRealTime

Why we highlight IG

For a first serious UK trading account, IG remains the safest and most complete choice. Deep liquidity, transparent GBP pricing and the strongest research desk in the FCA universe.

Trader protections

FCA-authorised, reference #195355
FSCS protection up to £85,000 on eligible claims
Segregated client money at tier-one UK banks
Negative-balance protection on retail CFDs