| Broker | Country | Rating | Min. Deposit | Website |
 | US | /5 | $50 | Click for a special offerWebsite |
Australia is one of the main forex centers in the world and is expected to attract even more forex brokers now that Europe is officially capping the maximum leverage levels available to retail investors. It offers quite favorable conditions for financial services providers. However, the local financial regulator, the Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC), has set certain requirements they have to meet, which guarantees their clients a high level of service.
ASIC requires licensed financial services providers to meet capital requirements of AUD 1 million, to keep clients’ money in segregated accounts and to follow certain internal procedures including risk management, staff training, accounting, audits, and more.
Another feature of Australian regulatory environment that many will find attractive is the fact that ASIC has imposed no limitation on maximum leverage. So, unlike EU and US brokerages, forex brokers based in Australia are free to offer leverage ratios as high as 1:500. That being said, we feel obliged to mention that high leverage can be very risky, if misused.
Unlike many European brokers, however, Australian ones are not covered by any compensation scheme. This is probably the biggest downside of Australian regulation and the main difference between ASIC and other top-rated regulators. A compensation scheme is a mechanism which requires brokers to set aside part of their profits in a pool, which later serves to insure clients’ funds, in case the broker goes bankrupt. By comparison, FCA-regulated brokerages are under the umbrella of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which protects consumers up to £85,000 per person.
From 29 March 2021 ASIC will launch a product intervention, aimed to reduce the losses of the retail clients, by significantly lowering the risks associated with CFD and FX trading. The order will remain in force for 18 months and later will either be extended additionally or made permanent.
Four consumer protection measures were agreed, which will effectively bring the Australian practice in line with the protections in force in comparable markets, such as EU and UK. The measures are as follows:
1. Leverage cap– a restriction of the leverage to a maximum ratio that Forex brokers are allowed to offer to the traders:
– 1:30 for Forex Majors
– 1:20 for Forex Crosses, gold and the major stock indexes
– 1:10 for Commodities and minor stock indexes
– 1:5 for Shares or other assets
– 1:2 for Crypto derivatives
2. Stop-Out level– a standardized close-out, meaning that the positions opened will be closed at a certain percentage level of the balance available before all or most of the client’s investment is lost.
3. Negative Balance Protection– the client losses will be limited to the funds in their trading accounts. It effectively means that a trader cannot lose more than the total sum deposited, and an indebted account is impossible.
4. Bonus prohibition– brokers will not be allowed to offer inducements or any other form of trading incentives to the traders. For a long time the brokers pretended that the bonuses were a form of free money, but in reality it’s a leverage tool, which significantly increases the risk for the traders.
Australian forex brokers
| Broker | Country | Rating | Min. Deposit | Website |
 | Australia | /5 | $200 | Read the review |
 | US, UK, CA, SG, AU, JP | /5 | $1 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $1 | Read the review |
 | UK | /5 | n/a | Read the review |
 | UK, Australia | /5 | $50 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $1 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $1 | Read the review |
 | Cyprus, Australia | /5 | $100 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $500 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | - | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $200 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $500 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | n/a | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | NA | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $0 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $100 | Read the review |
 | SVG, Australia | /5 | $100 | Read the review |
 | SVG, Seychelles, Australia | /5 | $50 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | $2000 | Read the review |
 | SVG, Australia | /5 | $100 | Read the review |
 | SVG, Australia | /5 | $1000 | Read the review |
 | Australia | /5 | N/A | Read the review |
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