City Index Review 2024

Is City Index regulated?

Yes, City Index is regulated by top tier authorities, like the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Is City Index safe?

To be certain that a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• the background of the broker.

How you are protected

City Index operates under several legal entities worldwide; which of these will serve you depends on your residency. The investor protection amount you're eligible for depends on the country where the entity serving you is located.
For example, if you are from the UK, you will sign up with StoneX Financial Ltd. and will be eligible for investor protection of £85,000. StoneX Financial Ltd. is regulated by the FCA, the UK's financial authority.

City Index provides negative balance protection for clients under StoneX Financial Ltd. (UK) and StoneX Financial Pty Ltd. (AU) for forex spot and CFD trading, but only for retail clients onboarded under the FCA or ASIC. Professional and clients outside EU or Australia are not covered with any negative balance protection.

Background

City Index is a brand of StoneX Group Inc., a US-based investment company. This is important as a strong parent company lowers the chance that the company will go bust.
The fact that StoneX Group is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange is a big plus for safety as City Index releases financial statements regularly and in a transparent manner.
City Index was established in 1983 and was acquired by GAIN Capital in 2014. GAIN Capital was acquired by StoneX Group in 2020. The longer the track record of a broker, the more proof we have that it has successfully weathered previous financial crises.
Having a parent company listed on a stock exchange, providing financial statements and being regulated by a top-tier authority are all great markers of City Index's safety.

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Account base currencies

At City Index, you can choose from the following 5 base currencies: EUR, GBP, USD, PLN, CHF.

This selection falls behind competing brokers. Both CMC Markets and XTB offer more base currencies.
If you would like to change the base currency of your account, you have to reach out to the City Index support team.

This selection is average compared to competing brokers.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you won't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Deposit fees and options

City Index charges no deposit fees.

Besides bank transfer, you can use credit/debit cards and PayPal to deposit funds. Once the account base currency is set, you can fund your account only with the same currency.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant. You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

There are a lot of deposit options at City Index, including electronic wallets such as PayPal.

City Index withdrawal fees and options

City Index charges no withdrawal fees. The options for withdrawing funds are the same as for deposits. The minimum withdrawal amount is $100 or all your available account balance (whichever is lower).

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How long does it take to withdraw money from City Index? Withdrawals usually take 3-5 business days.
When we tested withdrawal, it took several weeks because we had a problem with credit card withdrawal. The reason for the problem was that City Index can't send money to some MasterCard and Visa credit cards. Instead of credit cards, we had to withdraw via bank transfer, but before doing so, customer service had to add and approve our bank account. It would be great to know in advance which cards are accepted and which are not.

How do you withdraw money from City Index?

1. Log in to your City Index account
2. Go to 'Funding'
3. Select 'Withdraw'
4. Enter withdrawal amount
5. Initiate the withdrawal

Can you open an account?

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

City Index accepts customers from selected countries including Australia, Singapore and the UK.

What is the minimum deposit at City Index?

The required City Index minimum deposit is $0.

Account types

City Index provides three account types, which differ in the account balance required, the maximum level of leverage and the provided additional services.

*This account requires that you hold a minimum €500,000 portfolio or have working experience in the financial sector.
Based on ownership, you can open an individual or corporate account. Ifyou are from the UK, you can also trade using a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) account.

How to open your account

The account opening is fully digital and it takes only 1 day until your account is approved.
The three stepsof City Index account opening:

1. Provide your personal and financial information.
2. Indicate your trading experience and fill out a test on your knowledge.
3. Verify your ID and residency. You can upload a national ID, passport or driver's license for verifying your ID. Utility bills or bank statements are accepted for residency verification.

You can use City Index's own or the MetaTrader 4 mobile trading platform. Both are available on iOS and Android. In this review, we tested City Index's own mobile trading platform.

Look and feel

The City Index mobile trading platform is user-friendly and well-designed.
We liked the 'Platform tips' option on the menu, which provides a demo of the mobile platform's functions. Another great feature is the embedded economic calendar, which has advanced filter options and can be customized on a high level.
On the negative side, features were sometimes a bit slow to load.

Login and security

City Index provides only a one-step login for its mobile platform. A two-step authentication would be more secure and adding this feature should be high on any company's list of security changes.

You can log in using biometric authentication, which is a convenient feature.

Search functions

The search functions are good.

You can search by typing the name of the asset you're looking for or browse product categories.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types on the mobile trading platform:

• Limit
• market
• stop
• stop trailing
• guaranteed stop
• OCO

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Good till Canceled (GTC)
• Good 'till Time (GTT)

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications on the City Index mobile platform.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

City Index offers two desktop platforms, the Advanced Trading Platform and MetaTrader 4. Similarly to the web trading platform, we tested the Advanced Trading Platform as this is City Index's own platform, while MetaTrader 4 is a third-party platform.
City Index's desktop trading platform has the same functionality as the web trading platform. For example, you can use the same order types or price alerts
On the downside, the desktop trading platform is less user-friendly and the design feels outdated. It was hard to navigate on the platform and it felt too crammed with functions.

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69% of retail CFD accounts lose money

City Index is a CFD and forex broker. To learn more about CFDs read our CFD trading tips.
City Index has an average selection of forex and CFD products.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FCA bans the sale of crypto-derivatives to UK retail consumers from 6 January 2021.

Leverage

You can't change leverage levels. This is a drawback.
Changing the leverage manually is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. Be careful with forex and CFD trading, as the preset leverage levels may be high.

We recommend City Index for forex and cfd traders looking for low forex fees and great research tools.

Below you can find links to all aspects of City Index in this comprehensive collection.

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our City Index fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the City Index minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your City Index account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the City Index account opening.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the City Index trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the City Index customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is City Index legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether City Index is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is City Index good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on City Index?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on City Index guide

I want to trade options, are they available at City Index?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on City Index?

What is the minimum account balance at City Index?

Check out the current account balance requirements at City Index in our What is the minimum account balance at City Index article.

Looking for commission and fees data for City Index?

We collected them in City Index commission and fees.

How do you withdraw money from City Index?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on City Index.