IC-Market Expert Review

IC-Market is a popular Forex broker that provides its services all over the world. This brand has existed since 2007. During this time, the company has repeatedly received international financial awards and recognition from hundreds of thousands of traders. Therefore, we decided to analyze the company's activity and make sure of its honesty and transparency of trading conditions. 

Company Structure and History 

IC-Market was founded in 2007 in Sydney by financial entrepreneur Andrew Budzinski. Since its foundation, the company specializes in CFD trading through different trading terminals and mobile applications. The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The management company International Capital Markets Pty Ltd is the owner of this financial brand. We have checked this information. It corresponds to reality. 

IC-Market provides services all over the world with several regulatory licenses. Various subsidiaries have been established to operate in different countries, including IC Markets (EU) Ltd, Raw Trading Ltd., and IC Markets Ltd. Traders from European Union are serviced by a subsidiary of IC Markets (EU) Ltd, which has a CySEC license (362/18). This is necessary to provide services in Europe based on European laws and regulations. 

The license of this broker is valid. The information in the license is true. However, the company does not have any other European licenses. If you live in Europe, then all possible disputes and proceedings with the company will be through the Cyprus regulator. 

In Australia, brokerage services are provided by the parent company International Capital Markets Pty Ltd with a license to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (335692). This license is also valid. It meets all requirements of the Australian legislation.

Many more questions arise from the two remaining offshore-registered subsidiaries. Raw Trading Ltd is registered in Seychelles with a license from the local regulator (Financial Services Authority of Seychelles with License SD018).





IC Markets Ltd is registered in the Bahamas (Securities Commission of The Bahamas with License SIA-F214). All broker's clients cooperate with these offshore companies, except for those who live in Europe and Australia. Offshore registration reduces the rights of clients and opportunities to challenge transactions. Therefore, you should be attentive. We recommend cooperating with this company only within European Union or Australia due to more reliable regulators and transparent trading conditions.

Trade Terms

IC-Market has a clear and transparent working structure. All their licenses of regulators are valid at the time of analysis and writing this article. However, it is important for potential traders to study the trading conditions of the company before starting cooperation.

We have highlighted a few key points about the broker's trading conditions and offers:

   - More than 200 CFD assets are available to choose from

   - Free demo account available.

   - Several trading terminals to choose from including Web Trader, cTrader, and MetaTrader

   - All popular assets are available for online trading: currency pairs, commodities, metals, cryptocurrencies, indices, stocks, and futures. 

The company indicates very low spreads from 0.0 pips and high leverage on its website. This needs to be elaborated on. In reality, the spreads are various pips. The spread is less than 1 pip on transactions. The 0.0 pips indicated on the website are not true. Please note that this information corresponds to 2019 data. This is stated in the footer of the main site. 

For various months, many of the company's trades were charging 0.0 pips spread. However, the commission is now back to market values.

Also note the amount of leverage from 1:20 to 1:500. Such leverage is offered to all clients residing outside the European Union. This has great risks for traders who trade with volatile financial instruments. With leverage up to 1:500 the broker operates on the market maker model. More transparent and safe is trading with 1:30 leverage, which is available only to customers from the European Union. 

As for other trading conditions, the company adheres to the rules and requirements in most cases. We have studied customer reviews on various independent portals. Less than 30% of the reviews indicate slippage, requotes or withdrawal problems. This is an average result for all CFD brokers providing honest services. 

Registration and Verification of Profile

The registration and verification process is very important for every trader. At IC-Market, registration consists of 5 steps. In the first step, you choose your country and enter your contact information. You can choose any country from the list. There are no restrictions for the residents of certain countries. This distinguishes the broker from other competitors that do not register users from some regions.

You can register through Google or Facebook. This will speed up the process and allow you to skip the first two steps. However, you will still have to verify your profile and send a scan of your driver's license or ID card to confirm your identity.

The entire registration and verification process takes about 5 minutes. However, documents are confirmed for up to 24 hours. After that, you can open an account, make a deposit, and trade in the online platform. IC-Market beats many competitors. The account opening process is convenient and fast. 

Reputation 

IC-Market has a generally positive reputation. We have studied the regulatory data and fully analyzed the public data on the financial condition of the broker. This company has had a stable net profit since 2007. It is a publicly-traded company whose financial data is publicly available. In 2019-2020, the company paid almost $140 million in taxes to Australia. At the time, the average turnover per month was $400 billion. The founder of IC-Market is among the top 100 richest people in Australia.

Throughout the broker's history, there have been virtually no scandalous situations involving the brand. There was only one public scandal in 2020. The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) blocked access to the broker's services in Italy. And the general partner Inter soccer club terminated its agreement with the company. However, legal disputes are still ongoing. IC-Market denies any allegations. The exact cause of the scandal is not known. 

The cause of the scandal was delays in sponsorship payments from IC-Markets. Inter and other partners received fewer payments during the COVID-19 pandemic because of the company's financial difficulties. The partners then sued the broker. Perhaps the broker will be found not guilty if the 2020-2021 pandemic is recognized as force majeure. 

The company has a good reputation on all kinds of rating sites (not counting the above scandal).  

Conclusion

IC-Market makes a positive impression, except for a few scandalous court cases. The brokerage company has existed since 2007. Since then, it has become one of the largest financial corporations in Australia. This is confirmed by Forbes and many other reputable publications. We have tested the trading conditions and the verification process. We did not have any complaints or problems during the trading process. 

However, you have to be careful. Only in Europe there is a European Cypriot regulation. This means that safe leverage and European regulation is only available to EU clients. Traders from other countries are served by offshore affiliates. They are offered leverage up to 1:500, which is not in line with European regulations. The level of risk with IC-Market is still high. But you can be sure that all conditions will be met.