BaFin Regulated Brokers: All 18 in the WIKILIX Database

Eighteen brokers in the WIKILIX database hold a recorded licence from the Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, the German financial supervisor better known as BaFin, and carry a clean regulatory status label. That is the complete set we hold, not a shortlist of five. Scores run from 49.3 at the bottom to 79.9 at the top, with the median at 60.4.

The data also answers something most BaFin pages skip. A BaFin record does not mean a German company: only four of the eighteen record Germany as their country, and five record Cyprus. IG Group Limited has operated since 1974 and carries seven other regulator entries alongside BaFin. FXFlat Bank GmbH records BaFin and nothing else.

The eighteen, ordered by score

The remaining ten sit in the grid below, ending at Consorsbank on 49.3.

How we built this list

Two conditions, one query. The first is a recorded BaFin licence. The second is a WIKILIX status label of "regulation", which is what we record when a broker's licence entries check out and nothing on file contradicts them.

Twenty-six records in the database carry a BaFin entry. Eight are absent from this page because their recorded status is something other than "regulation": four are flagged as suspicious clones, two as operating without regulation, one carries a scam report, and one has no status label at all. Those eight are not hidden. They sit in our safety rankings, because a page headed "regulated" is the wrong place for them.

What the eighteen share, and what they do not

• Fourteen record licences from two or more authorities. Four record BaFin alone.
• Eleven also record an FCA entry, eight a CySEC entry and five an ASIC entry.
• Eight opened before 2010. Commerzbank's recorded opening date is 26 February 1870, older than the next entry by 78 years.
• Maximum leverage is recorded for fourteen of them. Five record 1:500 or higher, and five record 1:1, which is a cash account rather than a leveraged one.

What a BaFin authorisation covers

BaFin supervises banks, insurers and financial services institutions under German law. An institution it authorises is subject to capital requirements and client money rules, and it reports to the supervisor. For retail clients of an EU-authorised entity, the ESMA product intervention rules also apply, capping CFD leverage and requiring negative balance protection. None of that is a judgement about how a firm treats its customers.

One caveat matters more than the others. Our records show that BaFin appears against a broker. They do not show which legal entity holds the authorisation, or whether it is a German licence or a passported EU notification, and the two look identical here. BaFin's own company database is where you settle that, and it is free to search.

Checks worth doing before you deposit

• Search the company name in BaFin's database and read the entity type, rather than treating any result as confirmation.
• Compare the legal entity on the account agreement with the entity named in the register. Groups often run several.
• Confirm which entity your account is opened with, since the leverage cap and the compensation scheme follow the entity and not the brand.
• Read the percentage of retail accounts losing money that the firm publishes on its CFD pages.

What this list will not tell you

It carries no spreads and no minimum deposits, because we hold neither figure. It says nothing about execution quality or how quickly withdrawals clear. It also does not tell you whether any of these firms will accept you as a client. That depends on your country of residence and on the entity you would be onboarded to, and it changes without any licence record changing.