GBE brokers: CySEC licence 240/14

No swap-free account is advertised on the three published live tiers. The broker does publish a swap-rates page, so financing costs apply to positions held overnight.

More than 1,000 CFD instruments, covering forex pairs, indices, individual shares, commodities, metals, futures and cryptocurrencies. All of it is CFD trading on margin, so you do not own the underlying asset.

The operator states that clients are covered by the Cypriot Investor Compensation Fund up to 20,000 EUR, or 90 percent of the claim, whichever is lower, and that a private excess-of-loss policy adds cover up to 300,000 EUR per client. Compensation schemes cover firm failure; they do not cover trading losses.

The broker quotes one to four business days for the bank-transfer routes and same-day handling during business hours for card and PayPal withdrawals. Actual arrival also depends on your own bank or payment provider, and WIKILIX has not independently timed a withdrawal.

SEPA withdrawals in euro are free. Withdrawals in other currencies cost 0.15 percent with a minimum of 15 EUR / 20 USD / 20 CHF. Card withdrawals cost 2 EUR or 2.50 USD, and PayPal withdrawals cost 2 percent capped at 5 EUR.

By bank transfer through Raiffeisen Bank International, Sutor Bank or Commerzbank, by credit card through Paysafe, or by PayPal. Bank transfers take one to four business days with no deposit fee. Card deposits cost 1.49 percent and are capped at 2,500 EUR; PayPal deposits cost 3.5 percent, are euro-only, restricted to EU residents and capped at 50,000 EUR.

Two pricing models run side by side. On the commission-bearing symbols, spreads start at 0.0 pips on EURUSD and the commission is 6.50 EUR / 7.00 USD / 7.00 CHF per lot on Classic, 6.00 / 6.50 / 6.50 on Plus and 5.50 / 6.00 / 6.00 on VIP. On the commission-free symbols, EURUSD starts from 0.8 pips. DAX spreads start at 1.2, 1.1 and 1.0 by tier. Indices, shares, commodities and futures carry no commission; crypto CFDs are charged at 0.06 percent.

MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and TradingView, each available through the browser, on Windows and Mac, and on Android and iOS. MT5 and TradingView carry the full range of over 1,000 instruments; MT4 carries over 400, and futures are not available through TradingView.

Up to 1:30 on all three published live accounts, which is the standard European retail cap. Higher leverage is only available to clients who qualify as elective professional clients, and the broker publishes a separate FAQ on that classification.

1,000 EUR, USD or CHF for the entry-level GBE Classic account. GBE Plus starts at 10,000 and GBE VIP at 100,000 in the same currencies. That entry point is well above the market norm and rules the broker out for anyone wanting to start small.

The operating company is GBE BROKERS LTD, company number HE 324205, registered in Cyprus on 5 August 2013 and still shown as Registered. Its registered office is Archiepiskopou Makariou III, 82, 1st floor, Mesa Geitonia, 4003 Limassol. The company's own imprint names its directors as Niklas Neubauer, Olga Kvasova, Andreas Psindros and Raminta Vaiciute, and gives the VAT number CY10324205A and the LEI 213800GTHAE44SHT4L77.

The operator states on its own regulation page that GBE brokers Ltd. is authorised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission as a Cyprus Investment Firm under licence 240/14, and that its Hamburg branch is registered with Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority under BaFin-ID 10148129. That is an onshore European framework rather than an offshore registration. WIKILIX confirmed the operating company on the Cypriot companies register in the course of this review but did not separately confirm the licence with the regulator, so check the licence number yourself before you fund an account.