FOREX.com Review 2026: Eight Licensed Companies Behind One Brand
Quick facts
| Legal entity | Eight companies, one per jurisdiction: StoneX Financial Ltd (UK), GAIN Capital Group LLC (US), StoneX Europe Ltd (Cyprus, Ireland, Germany, Poland), GAIN Capital - FOREX.com Canada Ltd. (Canada), StoneX Securities Co., Ltd. (Japan), StoneX Financial Pty Ltd (Australia), StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), GAIN Global Markets, Inc. (Cayman Islands, the default everywhere else) |
|---|---|
| Regulator | CFTC / NFA, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) |
| Licence number | FCA 446717; NFA 0339826; CySEC 400/21; CIRO Investment Dealer; Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsho) 291; AFSL 345646; MAS Capital Markets Services licence; CIMA 25033 |
| Founded | 1999 (GAIN Capital); FOREX.com brand acquired by StoneX in 2020 |
| Headquarters | Warren, New Jersey (US entity); London EC2Y 5ET (UK entity) |
| Minimum deposit | $100 per transaction by bank transfer or debit card (US); firm recommends $2,500 |
| Spread from | EUR/USD as low as 1.2 spread-only; 0.1 typical on RAW pricing plus $7 per $100,000 traded |
| Maximum leverage | Set by the regulator of the contracting entity; 30:1 majors for UK retail clients, 50:1 majors under CFTC rules |
| Platforms | Proprietary web and mobile, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 |
| Instruments | Forex, indices, commodities |
| Withdrawal time | Bank transfer deposits not available for withdrawal until 5 business days after the deposit date |
| Segregated funds | Segregated client money in every jurisdiction. A compensation scheme in four of the eight: FSCS GBP 85,000 (UK), ICF EUR 20,000 (Cyprus), CIPF CAD 1,000,000 per account category (Canada), JIPF JPY 10,000,000 (Japan). No scheme in the US, Australia, Singapore or the Cayman Islands. |
| Website | forex.comVisit → |
FOREX.com is the retail brand of StoneX Group Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company. Its regulation page names eight regulators and not one company. We checked all eight against the regulators’ own registers, and all eight hold up: seven tier-1 licences plus a Cayman Islands company that takes everyone else. It scores 7.9 because the licences are as good as this industry gets, and because which of those eight companies you contract with decides whether anything at all protects your money.
Why we rated FOREX.com Trusted
1. The brand is a declared trading name on both licences, not an association
This is the finding that separates FOREX.com from most of what we review, and it is worth being precise about because the identical check produced the opposite result elsewhere on this site.
On the FCA register, StoneX Financial Ltd, FRN 446717, is Authorised, has been since 24 March 2006, and can hold and control client money. The firm’s record lists six trading names, and Forex.com is one of them, effective 1 March 2021, alongside City Index, Gain Capital, GTX Direct and StoneX Trading.
On NFA BASIC, GAIN CAPITAL GROUP LLC, NFA ID 0339826, shows as NFA Member Approved and CFTC Registered, registered as a Futures Commission Merchant and Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer, with the designation Forex Dealer Member and Doing Business As FOREX.COM.
Compare that with HighMarkets, where the Seychelles FSA register shows the licensed entity trading under a different declared name entirely. Same field, same check, opposite answer. A brand that appears in the regulator’s own trading-name table has been disclosed to the supervisor; one that does not has not.
2. A listed parent, with the disclosure that comes with it
GAIN Capital Group LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of StoneX Group Inc., listed on NASDAQ as SNEX. A listed parent does not make a broker safe by itself, but it brings audited accounts, public filings and a regulator with an interest in what those filings say. Most of the firms in our database disclose no financial information at all.
3. Costs are published, specific and checkable
FOREX.com maintains a financial transparency section that publishes actual spread data rather than a marketing range. On its US trade prices page it shows two account types:
- Spread-only: EUR/USD as low as 1.2, variable spreads, no commission.
- RAW pricing: EUR/USD typical 0.1 and as low as 0.0, plus $7 per $100,000 traded.
The published raw table also gives GBP/USD 0.2 typical, USD/JPY 0.0 and AUD/USD 0.3. Whether those are the best rates available is a separate question. The point for scoring is that they are stated, itemised by pair, and can be held against the firm later. Of the reviews on this site, most publish no spread at all, and AvaTrade requires a login before it will show one.
4. Eight jurisdictions, eight companies, four compensation schemes
FOREX.com’s regulation page names eight regulators. It does not name a single company or quote a single licence number. We built the map below from the firm’s own regional footers and then checked every entry against the regulator’s own register. All eight check out.
| Where you sign up | The company you contract with | Licence | If it fails |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | StoneX Financial Ltd | FCA FRN 446717, authorised since 24 March 2006 | FSCS, £85,000 per eligible person per firm |
| Cyprus, Ireland, Germany, Poland | StoneX Europe Ltd | CySEC CIF 400/21, since 24 May 2021 | ICF, €20,000 maximum per covered client |
| Canada | GAIN Capital – FOREX.com Canada Ltd. | CIRO Investment Dealer | CIPF, CAD $1 million per account category |
| Japan | StoneX Securities Co., Ltd. | Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsho) No. 291, Type 1 | JIPF, ¥10 million per customer |
| United States | GAIN Capital Group LLC | NFA ID 0339826, FCM and Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer | Nothing. US retail forex has no compensation scheme |
| Australia | StoneX Financial Pty Ltd | AFSL 345646, ACN 141 774 727 | Nothing. The CSLR excludes foreign exchange dealing and derivatives |
| Singapore | StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd. | MAS Capital Markets Services Licensee | Nothing. SDIC covers bank deposits and insurance policies, not a CMS licensee |
| Everywhere else | GAIN Global Markets, Inc. | CIMA licence 25033, Cayman Islands, since 1 January 2007 | Nothing. No scheme exists |
Four of the eight carry a compensation scheme and four do not, and the difference between the best and the worst of them is the difference between a million Canadian dollars and zero. Same brand, same platform, same login page.
Two details in that table are worth pulling out because they come from the registers rather than from the broker.
CySEC publishes approved trade names and approved domains. StoneX Europe Ltd’s entry lists CITYINDEX and forex.com as approved trade names, and names three approved domains: the Irish, German and Polish versions of forex.com. That is a stronger declaration than most regulators publish, and it is the field to check if you are ever unsure whether the site in front of you belongs to the licence in the footer. Its permissions include dealing on own account, which is the register confirming the firm is the counterparty to your trade rather than an intermediary.
The Canadian dealer is administered from New Jersey. CIRO’s own directory gives GAIN Capital – FOREX.com Canada Ltd.’s address as 30 Independence Blvd, Warren, NJ, the same building as the US entity. That is lawful and disclosed, and it is worth knowing that the Canadian company is a registration rather than an office.
What holds the score down
The regulation page names regulators and not companies
This is the transparency deduction, and it is a real one for a firm that otherwise publishes more than its competitors.
A reader who opens FOREX.com’s regulation page sees eight flags and eight regulator names. They cannot learn from that page which company will appear on their client agreement, what its licence number is, or whether a compensation scheme stands behind it. Every one of those answers exists, on eight different regional footers, in eight different places.
Compare that with the cost pages, where the firm publishes typical and minimum spreads per pair and the commission per $100,000 traded. The same company that will tell you EUR/USD is 0.1 typical on RAW pricing will not tell you, in one place, that a Singapore client contracts with StoneX Financial Pte. Ltd. and has no compensation scheme. The information is not hidden. It is scattered, and scattering is a choice.
The check we would want a reader to run is the one in our licence-checking guide: find the company named in your client agreement, then look that company up on its own regulator’s register. With FOREX.com that check works and returns a good answer in all eight jurisdictions. It just cannot be started from the page that is supposed to answer it.
A $700,000 NFA fine in 2022
On 8 December 2022 the National Futures Association fined GAIN Capital Group LLC $700,000, according to NFA’s own news release.
We have not obtained the underlying decision document, so this review records the action, the amount and the date and deliberately does not characterise what the violations were. The complaint pillar is marked down for the existence of a disciplinary action of that size at a firm of that size, not for anything we are asserting about its contents. When we read the decision we will update this section and say so in the changelog.
The Cayman default is the weakest link
If you are not in one of the seven named jurisdictions, you get GAIN Global Markets, Inc. The firm states this plainly on its international site, and the licence is real and long held: CIMA lists it among Securities Investment Business licensees at number 25033, licensed since 1 January 2007.
Real is not the same as protected. The Cayman Islands has no investor compensation scheme. If that entity fails and the client money is not all there, there is no fund to make up the difference, and the seven tier-1 licences elsewhere in the group are not obligations of the company you contracted with. Our guide to compensation schemes sets out why that distinction decides the outcome on the worst day.
This is the same structural pattern we mark other brokers down for heavily. FOREX.com still rates Trusted because it discloses the arrangement on its own regulation page rather than burying it, because the entity is a genuinely licensed company rather than a registration dressed up as one, and because seven of the eight jurisdictions are tier-1. The pattern is the same; the honesty around it is not.
Deposits and withdrawals
The US funding pages state a minimum of $100 per transaction by bank transfer or debit card, with a recommendation of $2,500 for what the firm describes as better flexibility and risk management. There is no stated account-opening minimum separate from that.
One term worth knowing before you fund: funds deposited by bank transfer are not available for withdrawal until five business days after the deposit date. That is a normal anti-fraud measure and it is disclosed, but traders who expect same-week access to a bank-funded balance should plan around it.
Frequently asked questions
Is FOREX.com regulated?
Yes, in the jurisdictions we verified. In the UK the operating entity is StoneX Financial Ltd, FCA reference 446717, authorised since March 2006 and permitted to hold client money, with Forex.com listed as a declared trading name. In the US it is GAIN Capital Group LLC, NFA ID 0339826, CFTC registered as a Futures Commission Merchant and Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer.
Who owns FOREX.com?
StoneX Group Inc., listed on NASDAQ as SNEX. GAIN Capital Group LLC, which operates the FOREX.com brand, is a wholly-owned subsidiary following StoneX’s acquisition of GAIN Capital Holdings in 2020.
Is my money protected with FOREX.com?
It depends on the entity. UK clients of StoneX Financial Ltd fall within the FSCS for eligible claims, up to £85,000 per eligible person per firm on investment claims. US clients have no compensation scheme, because the CFTC and NFA regime does not provide one for retail forex. Check which entity your client agreement names.
What does FOREX.com cost?
On the US spread-only account, EUR/USD is quoted as low as 1.2 with no commission. On the RAW pricing account, EUR/USD is shown as 0.1 typical and as low as 0.0, with a commission of $7 per $100,000 traded. The firm publishes a per-pair spread table on its trade prices page.
Has FOREX.com ever been fined?
Yes. The NFA fined GAIN Capital Group LLC $700,000 on 8 December 2022. We record the action, amount and date from NFA’s own news release and will add the specific findings once we have read the full decision.
What is the minimum deposit at FOREX.com?
The US funding pages state a minimum of $100 per transaction by bank transfer or debit card, with the firm recommending $2,500. Note that bank-transfer deposits cannot be withdrawn until five business days after the deposit date.
Sources
Financial Conduct Authority, Financial Services Register: StoneX Financial Ltd, FRN 446717, status Authorised since 24 March 2006, can hold and control client money, six trading names including Forex.com effective 1 March 2021. Also Stonex Financial Europe S.A., FRN 589503, no longer authorised. Checked at source 19 September 2026.
NFA BASIC: GAIN CAPITAL GROUP LLC, NFA ID 0339826, NFA Member Approved, CFTC Registered, Futures Commission Merchant and Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer, Forex Dealer Member, doing business as FOREX.COM, Warren NJ. Checked at source 19 September 2026.
National Futures Association news release recording a $700,000 fine against Gain Capital Group LLC, dated 8 December 2022. Checked 19 September 2026. Full decision document not yet obtained.
FOREX.com US trade prices and financial transparency pages for spreads and commission, and the US funding FAQ for the $100 per transaction minimum and the five business day withdrawal hold. Checked 19 September 2026.
Ownership and the 2020 GAIN Capital Holdings acquisition per StoneX Group Inc. public disclosure. Entities in Australia, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong and the UAE are not yet verified at source and are excluded from this assessment.
Answered in detail
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