CMC Markets Review 2026: No Offshore Entity, One Licence Being Cancelled

Quick facts

CMC is the only large broker we have examined with no offshore company anywhere in its structure. Every entity we found sits in a tier-1 jurisdiction, and four of them carry a compensation scheme. It scores 8.1. Two things hold it back: the UK spread-betting company has applied to cancel its FCA authorisation and CMC’s own site does not mention it, and the overnight cost that decides what CMC charges you is only visible once you have an account.

Why we rated CMC Markets Trusted

1. There is no offshore entity. At all.

This is the finding, and it is unusual enough to state first.

Every group we review at this size has a company in a jurisdiction with no compensation scheme, taking everyone the tier-1 licences do not cover. FOREX.com routes them to a Cayman Islands company. IG routes them to Bermuda. Exness, which we rate High Risk, routes most retail clients to Seychelles.

CMC has no such company. We checked eight entities across six jurisdictions and every one of them is UK, German, Australian, Singaporean or Canadian. If you live somewhere CMC is not licensed, you cannot open an account, rather than being routed to a shell with the same login page and none of the protection.

That is a structural choice, and it costs the group revenue. It is also the single most reliable predictor in our data of whether a client’s money is somewhere a regulator can reach.

2. Two banks, three gambling companies and a newspaper have traded on CMC’s licence

CMC Markets UK plc’s previous-names table on the FCA register holds twenty-nine entries. CMC Spreadbet plc’s holds thirty-five. They overlap, and they are almost all other firms’ brands running on CMC’s authorisation.

Plus around twenty more: Galvan Global Markets, Sharewatch Global Markets, Digital Look Markets, OSTC Markets, JN Financial CFDs, Pro Financial, Blue Index Markets, Jarvis Spreadbetting, Central Spreads, Intelligent Spreads and others.

And it is still happening. AFCA’s member register lists CMC Markets Stockbroking Limited, AFSL 246381, as also known as St.George Directshares and Bendigo Invest Direct. Two Australian banks’ share-trading platforms run on CMC’s licence today.

Why this matters to a reader rather than being trivia: it tells you that the company writing your contract may be doing the same job for firms you have never associated with it, and it tells you the previous-names field on a register is worth opening. It is the same field that decides whether a brand is declared against a licence at all, which is the first check in our guide to checking a broker's licence.

For completeness, the name itself has a history. The registered entity was Currency Management Corporation Plc from 18 December 1995, became CMC Group Plc on 27 August 1999, and CMC Markets UK plc on 20 September 2005.

3. Four of the entities carry a compensation scheme

UK clients of either FCA entity fall under the FSCS at £85,000 per eligible person per firm, and CMC quotes that figure correctly on its own costs page, which is worth noting given how many firms have muddled it since the deposit limit rose. German clients fall under the EdW, the statutory investor compensation scheme, and CMC Markets Germany GmbH is member number 139 on the EdW’s own published list. Canadian clients are with a CIRO investment dealer, which carries CIPF coverage at CAD $1 million per account category.

Australian and Singaporean clients have no scheme. Australia’s CSLR excludes foreign exchange dealing and derivatives, and Singapore has no investor compensation scheme covering a capital markets services licensee. Our guide on compensation schemes sets out what that means in practice.

4. Nothing found at the regulators

We searched the FCA register’s published documents and ASIC’s enforcement publications for CMC entities and found no fine, final notice, enforceable undertaking or infringement notice. As with any negative search, not found is not the same as none.

There is one regulator publication naming CMC, and it is in CMC’s favour. On 29 August 2023 CIRO issued an investor alert stating that a platform called IB Platform “now falsely claims to be an official branch of CMC Markets Canada, regulated by CIRO”, and that it “is not a member of CIRO, nor is it affiliated in any way with CMC Markets Canada Inc.” Fraudsters clone the brands that carry weight.

What holds the score down

The UK spread-betting company has applied to cancel its licence

This is current and it is on the register today.

CMC Spreadbet plc, FRN 170627, authorised since 1 December 2001, now shows a status of “Authorised – applied to cancel” with a sub status of “Applied to Cancel” since 5 February 2026. The FCA’s own note on the record reads:

This firm has applied to cancel its authorisation but must still meet our standards in dealing with its customers. Check with the firm how this affects your business with them.

The likely explanation is benign. CMC’s current UK footer names only CMC Markets UK plc (173730) and CMC Markets Investments Limited (948126), and CMC Markets UK plc’s permissions cover spread betting, so this reads as a group simplification with spread betting consolidated into the main entity. That is a normal and sensible thing to do.

The criticism is not the cancellation. It is that a UK client whose account documents name CMC Spreadbet plc will find this on the FCA register and find nothing about it on CMC’s website. The regulator’s own wording tells them to “check with the firm”. A short published note explaining the consolidation would answer the question before it is asked, and there isn’t one.

The number that decides your overnight cost is only visible once you have an account

CMC publishes the holding-cost machinery in more detail than most, including worked examples for the commodity price adjustment that are genuinely better than anything its competitors put out. The daily charge is:

(units x current trade mid-price x holding rate) / 365 x CMC Markets currency conversion rate, applied at 5pm New York time.

Then, in CMC’s own words: “Historical holding rates, expressed as an annual percentage rate, are visible on our platform within the overview section for each product.”

So the formula is public and the rate that goes into it is not. You can see exactly how the charge is calculated and you cannot see what it will be until you have opened an account.

The markup is published on a basis you cannot compare

What CMC does publish is its own addition on top of the market rate:

• Forex: buy holding rate = tom-next rate + 0.0027%, sell = tom-next rate – 0.0027%
• Shares and indices: the underlying interbank rate +/- 0.0082%
• Commodities and treasuries: a CMC charge of “whichever is larger of 3% and a proportion of the price adjustment”

Those first two figures look tiny. Put them next to IG, which publishes an admin fee of 1% a year on forex and 3% on other asset classes, and the arithmetic is the point:

0.0027 x 365 = 0.9855%. 0.0082 x 365 = 2.993%.

Both land on IG’s published annual figures almost exactly, which is what tells you CMC’s percentages are daily.

And CMC’s own instrument pages confirm it. Each one publishes a daily holding rate and a yearly holding rate side by side, and the yearly figure is the daily figure multiplied by 365 every time. EUR/USD buy is 0.00676% daily against 2.467% yearly. EUR/GBP buy is 0.00690% against 2.5186%. USD/JPY sell is 0.01130% against 4.1228%. The convention is not in doubt once you find the page that states both.

The problem is that the charges page, which is where a prospective client looks, states only the small number. It describes the tom-next rate as “expressed as an annual percentage” in the same sentence that adds a daily figure to it, and the formula then divides the result by 365. A reader who takes 0.0027% at face value against IG’s 1% will conclude CMC is roughly four hundred times cheaper to hold a position with. It is not. The two brokers charge effectively the same overnight markup, and only one of them publishes it in a form you can compare at a glance.

The spreads are published, just not where the costs page says

CMC’s trading-costs page carries live minimum-spread tables per instrument. They load dynamically and never populated for us across several attempts. The same figures sit on each instrument’s own page, which does render, and that is where we read them.

Tighter on two, level on two, wider on none. Both sets are each broker’s own published minimum, so this is a like-for-like comparison of the number each firm chooses to advertise, not of what you will actually pay at a given moment.

The instrument pages carry three other fields worth knowing before you deposit: the minimum trade size (400 units on EUR/USD, EUR/GBP and GBP/USD, 500 on USD/JPY), whether a guaranteed stop is available, and the tier-1 margin rate, which is 3.34% on all four majors, the regulatory 30:1.

What CMC does publish clearly

• Share dealing: no commission to buy or sell. The only costs are a currency conversion fee and a market data fee.
• Additional spread on shares by market: UK none, rest of Europe none, Greece 0.45%, US and Canada 1 to 4 cents per share each side, tiered by price: 1 cent under $15, 2 cents to $25, 3 cents to $35, 4 cents above.
• Spread betting: no commission, no currency conversion cost, no market data fee.
• Short share positions may attract borrowing fees which CMC warns “can be significant and are subject to large changes as short interest in a stock increases”. Few brokers say this out loud.
• Forward contracts on indices, FX, commodities and treasuries carry no holding cost at all.
• Risk warning: 68% of retail investor accounts lose money spread betting or trading CFDs with CMC.

The entity map

Eight entities, all verified at the regulator’s own source on 19 September 2026.

The parent is CMC Markets Plc, a FTSE 250 constituent, trading since 1989. Regulation and fund safety together carry 55% of the weight in our scoring method.

Not checked at source: CMC’s New Zealand entity, and the group’s European branch network outside Germany. We will add them.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Financial Conduct Authority register, CMC Markets UK plc, FRN 173730: Authorised since 01/12/2001, registered name from 20 September 2005, current trading names CMC Connect and CMC CapX, can hold and control client money, 133 Houndsditch London EC3A 7BX, and the previous-names table of twenty-nine entries including RBS Spread Trading, Natwest Index, 32Red Spreadbet, Purple Lounge Markets, City AM Trading and Beaufort Securities, with the registered-name chain from Currency Management Corporation Plc. Checked 19 September 2026.

Financial Conduct Authority register, CMC Spreadbet plc, FRN 170627: status “Authorised – applied to cancel”, sub status “Applied to Cancel” since 05/02/2026, the FCA’s note quoted above, and the previous-names table of thirty-five entries including Tradefair Premium. Checked 19 September 2026.

Financial Conduct Authority register, CMC Markets Investments Limited, FRN 948126: Authorised since 21/03/2022, trading name CMC Invest. Checked 19 September 2026.

Entschädigungseinrichtung der Wertpapierhandelsunternehmen, list of member institutions dated 19 May 2026, entry 139, CMC Markets Germany GmbH, Frankfurt am Main. Checked 19 September 2026.

Australian Financial Complaints Authority financial firm search: CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, AFSL 238054, ACN 100058213, member 11752, joined 01/07/2008, formerly CMC Markets Pty Ltd; CMC Markets Stockbroking Limited, AFSL 246381, ACN 081002851, member 10158, joined 04/06/2008, also known as CMC Invest, St.George Directshares, Bendigo Invest Direct, CMC Alpha and EBROKING. ASIC Connect was unreachable on the check date. Checked 19 September 2026.

Monetary Authority of Singapore Financial Institutions Directory, CMC Markets Singapore Pte Ltd: Capital Markets Services Licensee and Exempt Financial Adviser. Checked 19 September 2026.

Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, dealers we regulate: CMC Markets Canada Inc., Investment Dealer, 81 Bay Street, Toronto. Checked 19 September 2026.

Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, Investor Alert: IB Platform is not affiliated with CMC Markets Canada, 29 August 2023, quoted above. Checked 19 September 2026.

cmcmarkets.com/en-gb and /en-gb/trading-costs for the FCA entity statement, company numbers, the FSCS and FTSE 250 claims, share dealing costs and the additional-spread tables. Checked 19 September 2026.

cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/cfd-trading/holding-costs-explained, last updated 15 July 2026, for the holding-cost formula, the 5pm New York cut-off, the forex tom-next plus or minus 0.0027%, the shares and indices interbank rate plus or minus 0.0082%, the commodities and treasuries CMC charge, the share borrowing-fee warning, the forward-contract exemption and the statement that holding rates are visible on the platform. Checked 19 September 2026.

IG’s published admin fees of 1% and 3% for the comparison, from ig.com/uk/charges, and recorded in our IG review. The annualisation of CMC’s daily figures is our own arithmetic and is shown in full above.

FCA register published documents and ASIC enforcement publications searched for CMC entities. No fine, final notice, enforceable undertaking or infringement notice found.

Answered in detail

Rated higher on the same scale

Rated Trusted or Neutral against the same six pillars. These link to our own reviews, not to the brokers, and no broker can pay to appear here.

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