#1
Standard Bank
RegulatedSouth AfricaEst. 1862FSCA
Regulation
License
Spread
47.1Score
Ten firms sit at the top of this ranking, drawn from the 33 brokers we have on record that carry a National Futures Association registration and have traded for at least ten years. The order is set by one thing: how long each has operated. That places century-old institutions above the retail names most American traders would name first, which is the honest outcome of ranking by age instead of by reputation.
The oldest entries are not trading apps. Standard Bank traces to 1862, Societe Generale to 1864, StoneX One to 1866 and Commerzbank to 1870. Each holds an NFA registration alongside other licences, and each has outlasted every retail broker in the group. The highest WIKILIX score here belongs to Marex, at 91.3, a London futures broker that opened in 2005 and holds FCA and SFC licences next to its NFA registration.
| # | Broker | Opened | WIKILIX score | Licences held |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Standard Bank | 1862 | 47.1 | FSCA, NFA, FSC |
| 2 | Societe Generale | 1864 | 59.6 | AMF, SEC, NFA, FINRA, SFC |
| 3 | StoneX One | 1866 | 60.7 | NFA, FINRA, FCA, ASIC, MAS |
| 4 | Commerzbank | 1870 | 60.3 | BaFin, FCA, NFA |
| 5 | A&C | 1976 | 53.4 | NFA |
| 6 | E*TRADE Futures | 1982 | 70.2 | NFA, SEC, FINRA |
| 7 | GAIN Capital | 1999 | 61.9 | NFA, FINRA, FCA, ASIC |
| 8 | Dorman Trading | 2000 | 53.3 | NFA |
| 9 | J V Group | 2002 | 68.2 | NFA |
| 10 | Marex | 2005 | 91.3 | FCA, SFC, NFA |
What 'longest-established' means here
Every firm is placed by its recorded opening date, oldest first. We counted only the 24 firms with a clean 'regulation' status and set aside eight names that carry a warning: seven marked as a suspicious clone and one as a scam. A duplicated Standard Bank record was collapsed to a single entry. Scores appear in the table for context, but they play no part in the order. Sixteen of the 24 clean firms opened before 2010 and seven were trading before 2000, so this is a genuinely old group by the standards of retail forex.
What an NFA registration buys a trader
The National Futures Association is the self-regulatory body for the United States derivatives industry, working alongside the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A member firm must keep client money segregated, meet minimum capital rules, submit to audits and answer to a formal disciplinary process. Retail forex leverage at NFA members is capped at 1:50 on major currency pairs, far below the 1:500 some offshore venues advertise. Fourteen of the 24 firms here also hold at least one licence from another authority, from the FCA in London to the SFC in Hong Kong, which is why several read as global institutions rather than single-country brokers.
The names you expected, and why they rank lower
FOREX.com opened in 2006 and OANDA in 2011. Both are NFA members and both are missing from the top of this list for the same plain reason: they are younger than the institutions above them. A few familiar names sit outside the ranking altogether. FXDD, tastytrade, AMP Global Clearing and Tradovate each carry a suspicious-clone flag on our records, so none was eligible for a list that promises clean status only.
Before you open an account with any of them
- Look up the firm's NFA identification number on BASIC, the association's public register, and confirm the registration is current.
- Check which legal entity holds the NFA membership. A large group can register one arm while the account you open sits with another.
- Read whether the registration covers retail forex, futures, or only institutional business, because the three are not the same permission.
- Note the status flag we record against the firm, and treat any clone or scam marker as a reason to stop.
- Confirm the firm will accept a client resident where you live before you send documents or money.
10brokers on this list
Researched & ranked by the Wikilix team
- #2
SOCIETE GENERALE
RegulatedChinaEst. 1864AMF
RegulationLicenseSpread59.9Score - #3
StoneX One
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 1866NFA
RegulationLicenseSpread60.7Score - #4
Commerzbank
RegulatedRussiaEst. 1870BaFin
RegulationLicenseSpread60.3Score - #5
A&C
RegulatedArgentinaEst. 1976NFARegulationLicenseSpread53.4Score - #6
E*TRADE Futures LLC
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 1982NFARegulationLicenseSpread70.2Score - #7
GAIN Capital Holdings Inc
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 1999NFARegulationLicenseSpread61.9Score - #8
Dorman Trading, LLC
RegulatedUnited StatesEst. 2000NFARegulationLicenseSpread53.3Score - #9
J V COMMODITY PVT. LTD.
RegulatedIndiaEst. 2002NFA
RegulationLicenseSpread68.2Score - #10
Marex Group
RegulatedUnited KingdomEst. 2005FCARegulationLicenseSpread91.3Score
This ranking is a snapshot of track record, not a verdict on who is best for a given trader. Age tells you a firm has survived several market cycles, but it says nothing about spreads, platform quality or whether the firm will take you on as a client. Read it next to the score-led and location-led lists rather than on its own.
We recheck the opening dates and status flags behind this page against our records on a regular cycle, and the ten names will shift if an older NFA firm is added or a listed one loses its clean status. Confirm any registration on the NFA's own BASIC register before you deposit, since our records reflect what we hold today and a licence can change without notice.
If you are weighing United States oversight more broadly, the companion lists of the longest-established and highest-scoring SEC registered brokers cover the securities side, and the ranking of brokers based in the United States shows the domestic firms by score. For a different tier-1 benchmark, the ASIC list applies the same clean-status method to Australian licences.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently asked questions
Answers from the Wikilix research team about this ranking.
Most Popular Questions
No. An NFA registration tells you a firm answers to US derivatives oversight, not who it is willing to onboard. Several firms here serve institutions or specific regions only, and US rules themselves limit which brokers take American retail traders. Always check a broker's own client terms for your country before you register.
In the United States, retail forex firms answer to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and must join the National Futures Association. Every broker on this page holds that NFA registration. Familiar retail names such as FOREX.com and OANDA appear in our wider records, though only a handful of firms actively serve US retail clients today.
Both are NFA members, but both are younger than the ten firms above them. FOREX.com opened in 2006 and OANDA in 2011, so a ranking built on years in operation places them outside the leading group. This list rewards longevity, not brand recognition, and several well-known US-facing names fall just short on that measure.
Because both hold a National Futures Association registration in our records, and both have operated far longer than any retail broker in the group. Large institutions register with the NFA to run futures, swaps or forex desks for professional clients. They rank high here on age, though most private traders will never open a retail account with them.
Marex, at 91.3, the strongest score in the group by a wide margin. It is a London futures and commodities broker that opened in 2005 and holds FCA and SFC licences alongside its NFA registration. It ranks tenth here only because the list is ordered by age, not by score.
Standard Bank, with a recorded opening date of 1862, sits first. The next three are also nineteenth-century institutions: Societe Generale from 1864, StoneX One from 1866 and Commerzbank from 1870. None began as a retail forex firm, which is the point the ranking makes about how old some NFA registrants actually are.
Thirty-three in total. Of those, 24 carry a clean regulation status, while eight are flagged as a suspicious clone or a scam and were left out, and one was a duplicated record. Sixteen of the 24 clean firms opened before 2010, which is why the ranking reaches back well past the retail era.
They are the ten longest-established firms, by recorded opening date, among the 33 NFA registrations we hold that carry at least ten years of trading. We kept only the 24 with a clean regulation status, set aside eight flagged names and collapsed one duplicated record. The WIKILIX score is shown for context but never decides the order here.