MultiBank Review 2019

MultiBank Group is a global financial group which includes companies from asset management to brokerage. MultiBank's brokerage service is operating under MEX Exchange, MEX Clearing, and MultiBank FX International brand names and they are regulated by ASIC, RAK, and B.V.I. FSC respectively. In this review, we use MultiBank as a name for the brokerage service.

MultiBank is considered safe because it is regulated by the top-tier ASIC and has a long history, dating back to 2005.

MultiBank is a global CFD and FX broker. CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74-89% 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.

Recommended for forex and CFD traders familiar with MT4 trading platform.

MultiBank pros and cons

MultiBank's account opening is seamless and fast. From bank transfers to electronic wallets, you have many options for deposit and withdrawal and they are free of charge. Customer service gives fast and relevant answers.

The trading fees are average to high. The product portfolio covers only forex, CFD, and crypto asset classes. The research and educational tools are very basic.

Compare to other brokers

MultiBank review
Fees 3 stars

MultiBank has average forex, but high CFD fees. The non-trading fees are average, it charges no deposit or withdrawal fees, but there is a high inactivity fee.

We ranked MultiBank's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo relating to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees, financing rates, and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions or spreads.
• Financing rates or overnight rates are charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than a day. A leveraged position means that you borrow money from the broker to trade.
• Non-trading fees include things like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

We also compared MultiBank's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, XM and XTB. This selection is based on factors like products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc.

Let's start with the trading fees.

Trading fees

MultiBank trading fees are average to high.

The fee structure differs from account type to account type. In this review, we tested the ECN Pro fees. It charges a commission, but the spreads are tighter. If you choose MultiBank Pro or Maximus account types, you will be charged only by the spread costs.

The fee structure is not transparent at all. On the website, you can find only the spreads for each account types, but there is no information about the commissions. We had to ask customer service about this information.

It is super hard to compare trading fees for CFD brokers. What did we do at Brokerchooser? Instead of quoting long fee tables, we compare brokers by calculating all fees of a typical trade for three assets.

These are the assets we chose:

• Apple, a large US stock
• Vodafone, a large European stock
• EURUSD, a popular currency pair

A typical trade means buying a position, holding it for one week and then selling. For the volume, we chose a $2,000 position for the stocks and $20,000 for the EURUSD transaction. 

This super catch-all benchmark includes spreads, commissions and financing costs for all brokers.

Here is the verdict. It has average forex, but high CFD fees.

The commission charged for ECN Pro is

• $3 per lot per trade for forex
• $3 per share charged only for opening a position for stock CFDs, the closing is free

Financing rates

MultiBank financing rates are generally average. For stock CFDs, the rates are low, while forex financing rates are high.

Financing rates are charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than a day. It can be a significant proportion of your trading costs.

Non-trading fees

MultiBank has low non-trading fees. It charges no account and withdrawal fee.

On the negative side, it charges $60 per quarter fee after 3 months of inactivity. It's quite high.

MultiBank review
Account opening 5 stars

The account opening procedure with Multibank is easy and straightforward. The account is ready for trading within a day.

MultiBank review
Deposit and withdrawal 5 stars

Deposit and withdrawal at MultiBank are great. Various options for funding, including traditional methods such as bank wire or credit card funding, as well as electronic wallets. Withdrawal is free and takes only a few hours.

Account base currencies

At MultiBank, you can choose from 8 base currencies. The available base currencies are USD, GBP, EUR, JPY, CHF, AUD, NZD, CAD. 

MultiBank is offering more account base currencies than their main competitor.

By default, your account will be in USD. You can change this setup through Customer Service. It would better if you could select your account base currency at the beginning of your account opening. 

It's great that you can open more open sub-accounts and the sub-account can have different base currencies. However, for doing this, you have to contact customer support as well.

A convenient way to save on the currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account. Revolut or Transferwise both offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. The account opening only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Compare digital banks

Deposit fees and options

The deposit at MultiBank is free of charge. Besides bank transfer, you can use credit/debit cards and the following electronic wallets:

• Skrill
• Neteller
• PayTrust
• PerfectMoney
• Help2pay
• Ngang Luong
• Payment Asia

The 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.

Withdrawal fees and options

The MultiBank withdrawal fee is free of charge. You can use the same options for withdrawal as for deposit. 

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How long does it take to withdraw money from MultiBank? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 1 business day.

How do you withdraw money from MultiBank? You can withdraw money from MultiBank by following these steps:

• Log into MyMultiBank
• Go to the Withdrawal
• Select your trading account
• Give the reason for the withdrawal
• Add the withdrawal amount
• Select your withdrawal method
• Initiate the withdrawal

Compare to other brokers

MultiBank review
Web trading platform 3 stars

The web trading platform of MultiBank is provided by MetaTrader. It is highly customizable, available in a lot of languages, and has a clear fee report. On the negative side, it lacks a two-step login and the design is outdated.

MultiBank does not have an in-house developed trading platform, it uses MetaTrader 4, a third-party platform.

MetaTrader 4 is available in exceptionally lot languages.

Look and feel

MultiBank's web trading platform has great customizability. You can easily change the size and the position of the tabs.

However, the platform feels outdated and some features are hard to find. For example, it took time until we found how we can add an asset to the watchlist.

Login and security

MultiBank provides a one-step login. A two-step authentication would be more secure.

Search functions

The search functions are OK. You can find the assets in categories. However, categorization is a bit confusing as there are more forex categories.

We missed the classical magnifying search function when you can type the assets' name manually.

Placing orders

You can use the basic order types. You will not find very sophisticated orders like the "one cancels the other" order.

• Market
• Limit
• Stop-loss

If you are not familiar with the order types, read this overview.

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Good 'til canceled (GTC)
• Good 'til time (GTT)

Alerts and notifications

You can't set alerts and notifications on the XM web trading platform. This feature is available only on the desktop trading platform.

Portfolio and fee reports

MultiBank has clear portfolio and fee reports. You can easily see your profit-loss balance and the commissions you paid. These reports can be found at the History tab. We didn't find a way to download them. 

Visit broker
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

MultiBank review
Mobile trading platform 4 stars

MultiBank has a great mobile trading platform, offered by MetaTrader 4. It is well designed and user-friendly. On the flip side, it lacks the two-step login.

Similarly to the web trading platform, MultiBank offers MetaTrader 4 as a mobile trading platform.

After you downloaded the MT4 mobile trading platform, you have to access the relevant MultiBank server, e.g. MEXIntGroup-Real. 

The mobile trading platform is available in 21 languages. This is one of the most extensive offers.

Look and feel

MultiBank has a great mobile trading platform, we really liked its design and user-friendliness. You will easily find all the features.

Login and security

Similarly to the web trading platform, MultiBank provides only a one-step login.

Search functions

The search functions are good. You can search by typing the name of the product or by navigating in the categorized folders. The categorization of the assets is a bit confusing as there are more CFD folders.

Placing orders

You can use the same order types and order time limits than on the web trading platform.

Alerts and notifications

You can't set alerts and notifications on the MultiBank mobile platform. However, you can set mobile push notifications on the desktop trading platform. It would be much easier if you could set these notifications on the mobile trading platform.

Visit broker
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

MultiBank review
Desktop trading platform 3 stars

MultiBank's MetaTrader 4 has a desktop version. In design and functionalities, it is almost the same as the web trading platform. One major difference is that you can set price alerts on the desktop trading platform.

Similarly to the web trading platform, you can use MetaTrader 4 as a desktop trading platform.

It has the same design, available in the same languages, offers the same order types, has the same search functions, and offers the same portfolio and fee reports.

The major difference is that you can set alerts and notifications in the form of e-mail / push notification on mobile / notification on the desktop trading platform. To set email or mobile notifications, you have to add your email address and your mobile MetaQuotes ID (it can be found in MT4 app's settings). You can add them if you go to the Tools and then the Options.

Visit broker
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

MultiBank review
Markets and products 1 stars

At Multibank, you only have access to FX, CFD and crypto products. It lacks real stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, options, and futures.

MultiBank is a CFD and forex broker. It has an average number of stock CFDs and cryptos. However, other CFDs and the number of currency pairs lag behind the competitors.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74-89% 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.

You can't change the default leverage level of the products. We think this is an important factor you should be in control of.

Another inconvenience was that stock CFDs were not available by default. We had to ask customer service to add them to the trading platform.

MultiBank review
Research 2 stars

The research tools of MultiBank can be improved. You can use only the research tools at the MetaTrader 4 platform. The trading ideas, fundamental data, and news are missing. As a plus, you can read useful daily analysis sent through email.

MultiBank research tools have two sources:

• MetaTrader 4 trading platforms
• Daily newsletters

Trading ideas

MultiBank does not provide trading ideas.

Fundamental data

MultiBank does not offer fundamental data.

Charting

MultiBank has OK charting tools. These charting tools can be found on the MetaTrader trading platforms You can use 31 technical indicators and other editor tools, like trendlines or Fibonacci retracement.

On the negative side, the design is outdated and some features are hard to use. For example, we hardly found how we could remove an indicator from the chart.

News feed

MultiBank doesn't offer news on the trading platforms.

Other research tools you will enjoy

MultiBank sends out great daily newsletter about Technical and Fundamental analysis. These newsletters show some important economic news and a short technical analysis for the major forex, index, and commodity assets.

Compare research pros and cons

MultiBank review
Customer service 5 stars

MultiBank has great customer support. We got quick and relevant responses via email, chat, and telephone, too. On the negative side, they are available only 24/5.

You can contact MultiBank via:

• email
• telephone
• live hat

The email support is superb. We received answers within 1 day for all our emails. The answers were helpful and relevant.  

MultiBank's telephone support is great. The agent was connected within 1 minute and was helpful. For example, we got a clear guide on how to place an order on the platform. The only thing to mention is we felt the agent to be pushy as asked about why we didn't yet deposit the account and when we plan to do that.

MultiBank's live chat works well. We got relevant and quick answers for most of our questions. The only negative experience is when we asked about the fees. For these tests, we received sometimes unclear and wrong answers.

We missed 24/7 availability. It's not transparent what time and which time zone the customer service is available. 

Visit broker
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

MultiBank review
Education 2 stars

MultiBank offers only a demo account as an educational tool. There are no further education opportunities.

For using the demo account, you have to register through MultiBank's website and add your email address, telephone, and country of residence.

Visit broker
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

MultiBank review
Safety

MultiBank is a global broker regulated by more financial authorities, including the top-tier ASIC. On the negative side, it is not listed on a stock exchange and doesn't have a banking license.

Is MultiBank regulated? Yes, it is regulated by several financial authorities, like the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) in the UAE, or B.V.I Financial Services Commission.

MultiBank was founded in the USA  in 2005. Is MultiBank safe? To be certain, it is best to check two things: how you are protected if something goes wrong and what the background of the broker is.

How you are protected

When you start opening an account, you can choose which regulator you wish to belong to.

As MultiBank is a big financial group, there are other companies that have another financial regulation. For example, MEX Asset Management in Germany is regulated by the German BaFin. However, if you want to use MultiBank's FX and CFD retail trading service, you can only open an account at one of the above-mentioned legal entities. 

It's also great that MultiBank offers negative balance protection.

Background

MultiBank was established in 2005. The longer the track record of a broker, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Being in operation for a long time and regulated by a top-tier regulator are all great signs for MultiBank's safety.

Filter the brokers by investor protection

MultiBank review
Bottom line

MultiBank is regulated by more financial authorities globally, including the top-tier ASIC.

On the plus side, the account opening is seamless and hassle-free. Multiple and free options are offered for deposit and withdrawal. The customer service is great.

MultiBank has some drawbacks though. The trading fees are average to high. Its product range is limited to FX, CFDs, and cryptos. The research and educational tools are basic. 

As your account will be ready within 1 day and there is no inactivity fee, feel free to try MultiBank.

MultiBank main features and highlights

Visit broker
74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money