Standard Bank: FSCA licence 26691

Yes, on the offshore platform. Webtrader comes with a 20 day free demo of the full platform. The local Online Share Trading account includes free education and training courses on products such as share instalments and contracts for difference.

No. Standard Bank offers only its own platforms: Standard Online Share Trading and ViewPoint for local Johannesburg Stock Exchange accounts, and Webtrader for offshore accounts. No MetaTrader, cTrader or other third party terminal appears anywhere in the offering.

It splits by account. The local Online Share Trading account covers JSE shares, exchange traded funds, contracts for difference, warrants, share instalments, futures, exchange traded products and covered calls. AutoShare Invest covers over 250 JSE shares and exchange traded funds, and the Tax-free Investment account over 70 exchange traded funds. The offshore Webtrader account covers contracts for difference, spot foreign exchange, shares, exchange traded funds, exchange traded commodities, futures and mutual funds, with 160 foreign exchange pairs and about 5 600 contracts for difference on record.

The maximum leverage on record is 1:20, read from the Webtrader commissions and margin schedule. The local accounts are cash investment products, apart from the geared instruments the Online Share Trading account carries, such as contracts for difference, warrants, share instalments and futures. This is not a high leverage retail foreign exchange offering.

Not for cash on the Webtrader platform. Clause 4.1.1 of the Webtrader Terms of Business states that client cash is not segregated from Standard Bank's own funds and may be used in the course of its business, which would leave a client ranking as an ordinary unsecured creditor for the cash balance if the bank failed. Securities are held separately and give a secured claim, so the exposure is to uninvested cash rather than to shares you already own.

For a local account the desk aims to transfer settled funds to your bank account within 24 hours of the request, at a cost of R4.56 including VAT. Share sale proceeds only become settled funds five business days after the sell trade, unless you pay 0.25% with a R39.90 minimum for early settlement. For an offshore Webtrader account, clause 10.5 of the Terms of Business allows up to 5 business days from approval, and the request itself has to be made by telephone or email to the call centre before a 15:00 South African time cut off.

It depends which account you hold, and the two routes do not overlap. Local accounts are funded from a South African bank account by internet banking, telephone banking or an ATM, or through the top up feature in the banking app; a transfer from a non Standard Bank account may take up to three business days. Offshore Webtrader accounts are funded by international bank transfer in US dollars, pounds sterling or euros, or through Shyft, Standard Bank's own currency conversion app. There is no card, cryptocurrency or third party electronic wallet option.

Local brokerage is quoted at two different rates on the broker's own pages: the Online Share Trading product page headlines 0.25%, while its fee schedule headlines 0.5% with a R110 minimum. Private Banking Suite clients are quoted 0.4%, and brokerage is negotiable above R500 000 traded per month. The account also carries a R110 monthly fee, waived for the first calendar month and in any month with three or more trades. AutoShare Invest and the Tax-free Investment account are cheaper, at 0.15% with no minimums plus a 0.12% annual safe custody fee.

Standard Bank is the share trading arm of a Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed South African banking group, not an anonymous operator. It names its operating companies and their registration numbers on its own pages, SBG Securities (Pty) Ltd for the local accounts and The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited for offshore Webtrader accounts, and both FSCA licences on this record were confirmed on the regulator's own register on 15 October 2026, along with the bank's registration number 1962/000738/06.

The risks worth reading here are disclosed terms rather than concealment. Clause 4.1.1 of the Webtrader Terms of Business leaves offshore cash unsegregated from the bank's own funds, Webtrader withdrawals must be requested by telephone or email rather than online, and the broker's own pages contradict each other on local brokerage, on the monthly account fee and on the withdrawal currency.

Two different companies, depending on the account. The local Johannesburg Stock Exchange accounts are operated by SBG Securities (Pty) Ltd, registration number 1972/008305/07, which the broker describes as a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Bank Group Limited. Offshore Webtrader accounts are contracted with The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, registration number 1962/000738/06. The counterparty, the fee schedule and the funding route all change between the two.

Standard Bank uses only its own platforms, and there is no MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 or cTrader anywhere in the offering. Local Johannesburg Stock Exchange clients get Standard Online Share Trading, a web platform with a tablet and mobile app, and ViewPoint, a low bandwidth platform for market data, trading and portfolio management. Offshore clients get Webtrader, which runs in a browser with no download, on web and mobile. The Webtrader sign in page now carries a banner stating that Webtrader has moved to Shyft.

Standard Bank does not set a single minimum deposit, and the figure depends on which account you open. The offshore Webtrader account has no minimum amount to trade. The Tax-free Investment account has a R250 minimum transaction, and AutoShare Invest gives a R250 minimum trade size on its own page while the Tax-free Investment account page gives R500 for the same product. The local Online Share Trading account is priced through a R110 monthly account fee rather than through a minimum deposit.

Standard Bank's share trading desk publishes a South African number, 0860 121 161, and an email address, securities@standardbank.co.za, on both its local and its offshore product pages. A WhatsApp chatbot is available on +27 64 570 0291. Support is in English, and the site links Facebook, X, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts. The site gives two different international numbers for this desk on different pages and publishes no operating hours for it, so confirm both with the desk before relying on them.

Yes. Two Financial Sector Conduct Authority licences on this record were confirmed on the authority's own register on 15 October 2026: FSP 11287, held by The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited and shown as Authorized from 19 April 2005 as a Category I financial services provider, and FSP 26691, shown as Authorized from 16 October 2007, which is the number Standard Bank publishes for SBG Securities (Pty) Ltd, the subsidiary that operates the local Johannesburg Stock Exchange accounts.

Client funds are a separate question from authorisation. Clause 4.1.1 of the Webtrader Terms of Business states that cash on the offshore platform is not segregated from Standard Bank's own funds and may be used in the course of its business, which would leave a client ranking as an ordinary unsecured creditor for a cash balance in an insolvency. Securities are held separately and give a secured claim.