Pepperstone review
The first firm in twenty-nine reviews to clear every register check without a caveat. The FCA authorisation names retail clients, the ASIC licence says retail and wholesale, and CySEC lists the EU entity. The thing to read carefully is the professional-client route, where the leverage cap disappears.
| Verdict | safe |
|---|---|
| Regulators | FCA, ASIC, CySEC |
| Minimum deposit | no stated minimum |
| Maximum leverage | 30:1 retail, 1:1000 professional |
| Platforms | MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView |
We have published twenty-eight broker reviews and never once used the verdict safe.
Sixteen came out caution, five closed, four avoid. This is the first firm where the
registers gave us nothing to hedge about, and saying so is as much a part of the job as
the warnings.
What the registers return
| Register | Entity | Result |
|---|---|---|
| FCA, FRN 684312 | Pepperstone Limited | Authorised, effective 5 August 2015 |
| ASIC, 6,525 licensees | Pepperstone Group Limited | AFSL 414530, licensed 4 February 2013 |
| CySEC, 248 firms | Pepperstone EU Limited | licence 388/20 |
Three regulators, three separate companies, all present and current. Companies House number 08965105 for the UK entity.
The field most reviews skip
A licence existing is not the same as a licence covering you. On the FCA register each permission carries a customer type, and Pepperstone’s read:
Retail (Investment), Professional
That is on dealing as principal, dealing as agent, arranging deals and making arrangements. Retail is named. We flag this because the same field on Exness (UK) Ltd shows Professional and Eligible Counterparty with no retail at all, and because OX Securities holds a real ASIC licence whose authorisation text ends at wholesale clients.
The Australian licence here is explicit in the other direction. Its published conditions authorise advice, dealing and market making in derivatives and foreign exchange contracts, and close with the words “to retail and wholesale clients.”
Where the caution belongs
Not with the licences. With the route around them.
The front page advertises 1:1000 leverage for professional clients. That is not a breach of anything: UK and EU rules cap retail leverage at 30:1 on major FX, and allow professionals to opt out of the cap. The firm is offering a legitimate election.
What the election costs is the point. Reclassifying as a professional client gives up retail protections: the leverage cap, negative balance protection as a retail entitlement, and in the UK access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and, for most claims, the FSCS. You are trading the safety net for the leverage, and the trade is rarely presented in those terms.
Whether you qualify is a separate test with published criteria on portfolio size, trading frequency and professional experience. Anyone offered the upgrade should read what is being switched off, not only what is being switched on. Our leverage limits by regulator sets out the caps the election removes.
What the licences still do not buy you
A licence is not an opinion about execution quality, spreads or service, and we have not tested any of them. It says a supervisor imposes capital requirements, audits, and rules on client money, and that a complaint has somewhere to go.
That is a floor, not a recommendation. Two firms can both be properly licensed and differ enormously in what they cost you per trade.
What to check before funding
Which entity your account sits with. Pepperstone runs UK, Australian, Cypriot and other entities, and the protections differ. The client agreement names the company.
Whether you are being offered professional status, and what it removes. This is the one place in this review where a real decision is being made.
The all-in cost of your actual trade size, spread plus commission, on the account type you intend to use. That number is not in any register.
What we checked, and what we didn’t
We searched the FCA register including the customer type on each permission, and the ASIC and CySEC registers we hold locally, on 19 August 2026, along with the firm’s own platform and account pages. Web search surfaced no regulator warning against the firm; the FCA warning list does carry an unrelated entry for “PepperStone VIP / EMC Capitals”, which is the usual pattern of a third party trading on a known name.
We have not opened an account, deposited money, or measured execution, spreads, slippage or
withdrawal times. safe here means the registers check out and nothing contradicts them.
It does not mean we have been a client, and it is not advice to become one.
Sources
- FCA — Financial Services Register, FRN 684312
- ASIC Financial Services Licensee Register, AFSL 414530
- CySEC — register of Cypriot investment firms
- Pepperstone — platforms, accounts and professional client terms