OANDA Broker Overview
OANDA is a forex and CFD broker that dates its business to 1996 and serves clients through a group of regional companies, each with its own website, regulator and account terms. OANDA Corporation, the US company, owns the OANDA trademarks; sister companies serve Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, Singapore and Japan, and OANDA Global Markets, in the British Virgin Islands, serves clients in other countries. Each of these companies is licensed or registered by the financial regulator of its home jurisdiction. On the US site there is no minimum deposit, leverage goes up to 50:1, and clients trade on OANDA's own platform, MetaTrader 4 or TradingView.
OANDA Regulation and License
Every OANDA company that holds client accounts has a licence or registration from its home regulator, and WIKILIX found each one on that regulator's own register on 23 October 2026:
- OANDA Corporation (United States): a member of the National Futures Association under NFA ID 0325821, approved as a Forex Dealer Member, and registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a Futures Commission Merchant since 14 March 2003 and as a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer since 5 October 2010.
- OANDA Europe Limited (United Kingdom, company 07110087): authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority since 17 May 2011 under firm reference number 542574, with permissions that include dealing in investments as principal for retail and professional clients.
- OANDA TMS Brokers S.A. (Poland, formerly Dom Maklerski TMS Brokers S.A.): listed by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) as a supervised investment firm, under authorisation KPWiG-4021-54-1/2004 of 26 April 2004.
- OANDA Australia Pty Ltd: Australian Financial Services Licence 412981, shown as current by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and effective since 26 March 2012, covering dealing in and making a market for derivatives and foreign exchange contracts.
- OANDA Asia Pacific Pte Ltd (Singapore): listed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a Capital Markets Services licensee; MAS publishes no licence number for it.
- OANDA (Canada) Corporation ULC: listed by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) as an investment dealer, a membership that carries no licence number.
- OANDA証券株式会社 (Japan): registered with Japan's Financial Services Agency as a Type I Financial Instruments Business Operator, Director-General of the Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsho) No. 2137, since 2 March 2009.
- OANDA Global Markets Ltd (British Virgin Islands): listed by the BVI Financial Services Commission as currently regulated for dealing as principal and for arranging deals in investments. The register gives no licence number, so the number SIBA/L/20/1130 comes from OANDA's own disclosure.
OANDA COINPASS LIMITED, which trades as OANDA Crypto in the UK, states a different kind of status: registration with the Financial Conduct Authority as a crypto asset firm under the UK Money Laundering Regulations, No. 921481, which is an anti-money-laundering registration rather than an investment licence.
Is OANDA Regulated?
Yes: all eight OANDA companies that hold client accounts are regulated, and their licences are confirmed on the regulators' own registers rather than only claimed by OANDA. Which regulator covers you depends on where you live, and clients in countries without their own OANDA company are served by OANDA Global Markets under its licence in the British Virgin Islands, an offshore jurisdiction with lighter rules than OANDA's other regulators.
OANDA Corporation and the OANDA Group
OANDA Corporation's GLEIF LEI record (LN0GDXREYMHALDVWEU15), checked by WIKILIX on 23 October 2026, shows a Delaware company, registration number 3128864, incorporated on 15 November 1999; the 1996 founding date is the brand's own account, not this company's. OANDA names OANDA Global Corporation as the parent of OANDA Corporation and as the shareholder of its Japanese company. Your country of residence decides which company holds your account. According to OANDA, OANDA Corporation serves US residents, OANDA (Canada) Corporation ULC serves Canadian residents outside Alberta, OANDA Europe Limited serves the UK and a few other countries including Switzerland, Norway and Liechtenstein, OANDA TMS Brokers S.A. serves the EU, OANDA Australia Pty Ltd serves Australia, OANDA Asia Pacific Pte Ltd serves Singapore, and OANDA Global Markets Ltd serves residents of selected other countries. Clients in Japan are served through oanda.jp.
The group also includes OANDA Business Information and Services Inc., a Delaware company trading as OANDA FX Data Services, and OANDA Assessments Limited in Malta, which states that its services are not investment or financial services and that it holds no regulatory authorisation.
Is OANDA Safe?
OANDA's safety depends on the company that holds your account, because each one protects client money under its own country's rules, and a confirmed licence is no guarantee against trading losses or a firm's failure. The protections differ by company:
- United States: OANDA discloses that forex balances are not covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) and get no preference in a bankruptcy.
- United Kingdom: OANDA Europe Limited follows FCA client money rules, its clients can take complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme may cover eligible claims if the firm fails.
- EU: OANDA TMS Brokers applies EU rules that include negative balance protection for retail CFD clients, and EU investor compensation rules apply within statutory limits.
- Canada: OANDA states that accounts at its Canadian company are protected by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund within specified limits.
- Japan: client margin must be kept segregated under Japanese law.
- Australia and Singapore: there is no compensation scheme for a broker's failure in Australia or for CFD trading in Singapore.
- OANDA Global Markets (BVI): an offshore licence with lighter capital and conduct rules and no investor compensation scheme.
OANDA Corporation's NFA record also lists three regulatory actions: NFA case 25BCC00004 of 13 June 2025, whose outcomes include a 600,000 USD fine; NFA case 21BCC00002 of 16 April 2021, with a 200,000 USD fine; and CFTC case 20-29 of 21 August 2020, a cease and desist order with a 500,000 USD civil monetary penalty. OANDA's own documents also disagree on some withdrawal fees, as set out under deposits and withdrawals below.
OANDA Account Types
OANDA Corporation's US site offers two account types, both in US dollars: the Standard account, with no minimum deposit or minimum balance, and Elite Trader, a loyalty program for clients who trade at least 10 million USD a month. Both give access to 68 currency pairs, OANDA's web and mobile platforms, MetaTrader 4, TradingView and API trading. Elite Trader adds cash rebates of 5 to 17 USD per million traded by volume tier, or 5 to 20 USD with Elite Extra (a 50,000 USD deposit or balance), a dedicated relationship manager, a free VPS and free wire transfers; clients introduced by an introducing broker or on past pricing promotions are not eligible.
The global site of OANDA Global Markets shows three accounts in its comparison table, although the same page says it offers four: Standard, available to all; Premium, for a 10,000 USD deposit or 10 million USD of monthly notional volume, with rebates of 4 USD per million; and Premium Plus, for 50 million USD of monthly notional volume, with rebates of 6 USD per million. All three offer more than 1,500 instruments on MetaTrader 5, OANDA's own platform and TradingView, in USD, EUR, HKD or SGD.
OANDA Spreads, Commissions and Fees
US accounts use spread-only pricing by default, and the US pricing page lists spreads of 1.4 pips on EUR/USD, AUD/USD and USD/JPY and 2.0 pips on GBP/USD. With a deposit or balance of at least 10,000 USD, US clients can choose core pricing instead: spreads from 0.0 pips on selected majors plus a commission of 0.70 USD per 10,000 units on each side, or 7 USD per 100,000. The global pricing page shows EUR/USD spreads from 1.0 pip with spread-only pricing and from 0.1 with core pricing but states no commission amount, and the global account table shows a commission of US$0 on all three accounts while marking Premium Plus as a core pricing account.
The US site charges an inactivity fee of 20 USD a month after 12 months without trading, never while a position is open and refundable for up to three months when trading resumes, and a 1.0% mark-up on currency conversion on v20 forex accounts. OANDA Global Markets charges up to 20 USD a month on the same inactivity terms.
OANDA Leverage
On the US site leverage goes up to 50:1, for example on EUR/USD, which needs 2% margin; other pairs need more, such as 3% on AUD/USD. These US limits do not apply to clients of OANDA's other companies.
OANDA Trading Platforms
OANDA's own platform, OANDA Trade, runs in the browser as OANDA Web and on iOS and Android as the OANDA Mobile app. The US site adds MetaTrader 4 (Windows, WebTrader, iOS and Android, with an optional premium upgrade of 28 extra tools) and TradingView, where an OANDA account can be traded directly; it does not list MetaTrader 5. The global site offers MetaTrader 5 with depth of market and Autochartist, TradingView and the OANDA app, but not MetaTrader 4. US clients can also trade spot cryptocurrencies in OANDA Paxos Mobile, a separate app offered with OANDA's partner Paxos, where the coins are held in a Paxos wallet and cannot be withdrawn directly.
OANDA Deposits and Withdrawals
Funding methods depend on the OANDA company that holds your account:
- US: debit cards, wire transfer and ACH, which is for deposits only and can credit part of a deposit at once through Instant ACH; withdrawals go by debit card or wire.
- Canada: debit card, bank wire and PayPal in Canadian dollars.
- UK: debit and credit cards, Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS, SWIFT and SEPA.
- EU: cards and local payment services such as TrueLayer, iDEAL, BLIK and Przelewy24 (which costs 2%) for deposits; withdrawals by bank transfer only.
- Australia: Australian-issued Visa and Mastercard cards, bank transfer, BPAY and PayID.
- Singapore: DBS bill pay, PayNow, FAST and bank transfer in nine currencies, with no cards or e-wallets.
- Global (BVI): cards, Neteller, Skrill, bank or wire transfer including Wise, and local payment methods in parts of South East Asia, Latin America and Africa.
Every OANDA company returns money to the source it came from: card withdrawals are refunds capped at the amount deposited by card, and profits are paid by bank or wire transfer. The times OANDA gives are its processing times, not arrival times. In the US, debit card withdrawals take 1 to 3 business days, while wires take 1 to 2 business days within the US and up to 5 abroad according to the funding page, or 1 to 5 business days according to the help centre.
Withdrawal fees are where OANDA's own documents disagree. For US clients, the help centre and the charges page say withdrawals are free, but a withdrawal-fee document linked from the charges page lists 20 USD on the first wire withdrawal in a calendar month and that fee plus 15 USD on each further one, and 15 USD on each debit card withdrawal after the first in a month; Elite Trader includes free wire transfers. For OANDA Global Markets clients, the charges page gives 20 USD per wire withdrawal while the help centre gives 20 USD for the first in a month and 35 USD for each further one; Premium and Premium Plus list free withdrawals. In the EU, withdrawals are free except the second and later ones under 200 PLN or equivalent in a calendar month.
OANDA Support
US clients can contact support by web chat, WhatsApp on +1 646 566 8178, Facebook Messenger, SMS and email at frontdesk@oanda.com, from Sunday 4 p.m. to Friday 6 p.m. US Eastern time, so support is not available around the clock. OANDA publishes no voice support line: the numbers on its contact page, +1 212 858 7690 in the US, +44 7537 411919 in the UK, +65 8809 4568 in Singapore and +61 407 143 336 in Australia, are SMS lines. Support is offered in English, Spanish and Mandarin, though OANDA says it cannot guarantee multilingual service at all times, and the EU site advertises support in English, German, French, Spanish and Polish. US complaints go to complaintsus@oanda.com.
OANDA Pros and Cons
Strengths:
- Licences for its regional companies from the CFTC and NFA, the FCA, the KNF, ASIC, MAS, CIRO and Japan's Financial Services Agency, all found on the regulators' registers in October 2026.
- No minimum deposit on the US Standard account.
- A choice of OANDA's own platform, MetaTrader 4 or 5 and TradingView, depending on the division.
- Local funding methods in each region, such as PayPal in Canada and PayNow in Singapore.
Limitations:
- Accounts, platforms, leverage, fees and client protections differ by company, so the terms of your own division need checking.
- OANDA Corporation was fined by the NFA in 2021 and 2025 and penalised by the CFTC in 2020.
- OANDA's own documents disagree on US and global withdrawal fees.
- Clients outside OANDA's onshore markets are served by its British Virgin Islands company, which has no investor compensation scheme.
- Inactivity fees on the US and global sites, support that is not available around the clock, and no voice support line.
OANDA Review and Assessment
OANDA is a long-running, multi-regional broker whose companies hold register-confirmed licences from major regulators, with no minimum deposit in the US and a wide choice of platforms. The offer is not uniform: the company, regulator, client protections, accounts, leverage and funding methods all change with your country of residence, and clients outside OANDA's onshore markets are served from the British Virgin Islands. Before funding an account, confirm which OANDA company will hold it and check that division's current charges, since OANDA's own documents give different withdrawal fees.
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