Top 10 SFC Regulated Brokers by WIKILIX Score

The ten firms below hold the highest WIKILIX scores among the 105 SFC-licensed companies we track with a clean regulatory record. Marex leads at 91.3, ahead of T. Rowe Price at 87.9 and StoneX at 85.7, and even in tenth place the score is still 78.9. What stands out is what these names are: mostly institutions, commodity brokers and global asset managers, not the retail foreign exchange shops that most "best SFC broker" lists are built from.

The ten highest-scoring SFC-licensed firms

The order is the WIKILIX score, descending. Where two firms tie, the older one ranks higher, which is why Pictet, in business since 1805, sits above Brown Brothers Harriman on the same 78.9. Eight of the ten opened before 2010 and four trace back beyond 1950. Only two, ADMIS and DA International, are domiciled in Hong Kong itself; the rest are British, American and Swiss firms holding a Hong Kong licence alongside their home authorisation. Every firm here carries at least two regulators on record, and Pictet and T. Rowe Price each hold six or seven.

What an SFC licence requires, and the Type 3 problem

The Securities and Futures Commission has overseen Hong Kong's securities and futures markets since 1989. It keeps a public register of every licensed firm, sets capital and conduct standards well above the offshore commissions, and backs eligible retail investors through the Investor Compensation Fund, which pays up to HK$500,000 per claimant when a licensed firm defaults on certain obligations.

Retail leveraged foreign exchange is treated separately. Offering it to the public in Hong Kong needs a Type 3 licence, and very few firms hold one. Most SFC licensees carry Type 1 permissions for dealing in securities or Type 2 for futures instead. That one rule explains why a ranking of the strongest SFC firms reads like a roll call of institutions rather than a list of retail platforms, and why anyone looking for leveraged forex specifically should read a firm's licence type before assuming the permission covers them.

Why the score sets the order

The WIKILIX score reflects our own reading of a firm's regulatory standing and operating history. It does not measure spreads, execution speed, platform quality or the cost of trading, none of which we hold figures for. A high score here says a firm is well regulated and long established, not that it is cheap or convenient to deal with, and the order carries no other judgement.

Five higher scorers that are missing

Several firms out-score the names on this list and were still left off, because WIKILIX records a warning against each. BlackRock at 83.7 and AMTD at 79 are flagged as suspicious clones, Straits Financial at 80.9 carries a scam report, and BTIG at 81.6 and Jane Street at 79.5 are marked as having exceeded their recorded scope. A clean status was a condition of a place here, so a strong score alone did not earn one.

Before you rely on an SFC listing

• Search the firm's exact legal name on the SFC register and note the licence types it holds; a Type 1 securities house cannot legally run a retail leveraged forex book for you.
• Confirm the entity taking your deposit is the SFC-licensed company, not an offshore affiliate trading under the same brand.
• Check whether your account would sit under the Investor Compensation Fund, since that protection attaches to the Hong Kong licence and not to the wider group.
• Treat a Hong Kong licence as silent on whether the firm will accept you as a client from your own country.