CMC Markets UK licences

Spread betting and CFD accounts reach more than 21,000 instruments, made up of over 15,000 shares, around 5,000 ETFs, 300 forex pairs, 80 plus indices, 100 plus commodities and 50 plus rates and bonds, along with share baskets. The equities account covers over 16,000 shares and ETFs for outright ownership.

OTC options on indices, shares and ETFs are also available and are cash settled.

The firm's own web platform and its iOS and Android apps are the main route and carry the full instrument range. MetaTrader 4 is offered as a separate account, and a CFD account can be linked to TradingView to trade the firm's prices through TradingView charts.

MT4 is narrower in scope: over 175 forex pairs plus indices and commodities, but no shares, ETFs, rates or bonds, and no TradingView link.

The firm states that retail client money is held in segregated bank accounts with UK banks including NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds under the FCA client assets rules, reconciled daily, and never lodged as margin with its hedging counterparties. Eligible deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to GBP 85,000.

One documented exception: a professional client who has agreed a title transfer collateral arrangement would rank as a general creditor in a liquidation rather than have segregated money returned.

The published table shows no withdrawal fee on either route. Card withdrawals take 3 to 5 working days depending on your bank, and bank transfers take 2 to 3 working days.

A withdrawal requested before 11am can leave the firm's account the same day if your bank details are already on file and verified. The payout account must be in your own name, and fees may be higher for international transfers.

Three routes are published: debit or credit card, online banking through the firm's open banking partner TrueLayer, and ordinary bank transfer, all handled from the Funding tab of the web platform or app. UK clients pay no deposit fee.

Card deposits are capped at GBP 50,000 per transaction. American Express and Diners Club are not accepted, nor are cash or cheques, and payments from a third party are rejected, so the card or bank account must be in your own name.

On spread betting and standard CFD accounts, forex minimum spreads start at 0.5 pips with no separate commission. On FX Active, six major pairs (EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD and USD/JPY) start from 0.0 pips and a fixed commission of 0.0025% per transaction applies instead, quoted as US$2.50 per US$100,000 of notional value per side.

FX Active also carries a 25% spread discount on all other forex pairs. Positions held overnight attract a holding cost based on the tom next rate plus a 0.0027% charge.

Maximum leverage for retail clients is 30:1, applied across spread betting, CFD trading and FX Active. That is the standard UK retail cap. Share dealing through the equities account is unleveraged.

Retail clients also get negative balance protection, so an account cannot be pushed below zero by a losing position.

No set minimum deposit is published. The firm states there is no cost to open a live account and that you simply need enough in it to cover the margin on the trade you want to place, giving worked examples of roughly GBP 40 of margin for a small UK 100 spread bet and about GBP 8 for the equivalent CFD.

It also recommends funding above the bare margin requirement as a buffer against adverse price moves.

Nothing found in this research points that way. The company behind the brand is 36 years old, confirmed active on the official UK company register, operating from a published London head office under a listed parent, with client money arrangements and compensation cover set out in detail on its own site.

The honest caveat is that the licence numbers themselves were not checked against the regulator's own register in this research, so the regulatory claim is well supported and internally consistent rather than formally verified.

The operating company is CMC Markets UK plc, registered in England and Wales under company number 02448409, with its registered office at 133 Houndsditch, London EC3A 7BX. It sits under the listed parent CMC Markets plc, company number 05145017, which the firm describes as part of a FTSE 250 group.

Both are confirmed active on the UK register of companies, along with CMC Spreadbet plc (02589529) and CMC Markets Investments Limited (12816952), all at the same London address.