About Pepperstone

Written by
Fact checked by
Adam N.
Updated
Apr 2024

Australia-based Pepperstone is primarily a forex broker that also offers a wide range of CFDs. The broker operates offices in London, Cyprus, Düsseldorf, Melbourne, Dubai and Kenya.

The fact that Pepperstone is regulated by three top-tier financial authorities - the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Germany's BaFin and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) - adds confidence to the broker's safety.

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75.2% of retail CFD accounts lose money

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. The company and its environment:
    History, Founders, Customer base, Competitors

  2. Our analysis and guides on Pepperstone:
    Pepperstone review 2022 

  3. Services offered:
    Forex, CFDsSocial Trading and Spread Betting

  4. Legal background:
    Countries served, Legal entities, Regulation

 

History of Pepperstone

 

Pepperstone was founded in Australia in 2010 by Owen Kerr and Joe Davenport. The company grew rapidly and by 2014, it raked in revenues of $60 million. Pepperstone focused on global expansion and entered the European markets in 2015 with the opening of a Pepperstone office in London. Following Brexit, new clients registering from the EU are served by Pepperstone's German and Cyprus entities. They expanded their global outreach by getting licensed in Cyprus, Germany (2020), Kenya (2021) and Dubai.

In 2013, Pepperstone played an active role in uncovering Australia's largest insider trading case in history by working alongside the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Federal Police.

Pepperstone sold most of its business to Champ Private Equity in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. In September 2018, the private equity firm sold its stake in Pepperstone to the broker’s founders, the senior management team led by chief executive Tamas Szabo, and to CHAMP managing director Fiona Lock. The terms of the deal were confidential. CHAMP justified the move by saying that they achieved their “growth objectives ahead of schedule.”
Since 2017, Pepperstone has been led by CEO Tamas Szabo, who had previously worked for IG Group for nearly 2 decades. 

In 2022, Pepperstone partnered with renowned social charting platformTradingView to provide access for Pepperstone customers to advanced charts and analysis, powerful trading tools, and the world’s largest social network of traders.

In order to strengthen its position on the Australian market, the broker signed a sponsorship agreement with the South East Melbourne Phoenix basketball team for the  NBL 2022 season.
As part of its charity activities, Pepperstone sponsored Melbourne’s “Biggest Ever Bloke’s Lunch” event, a cause designed to educate men about prostate cancer through early detection and protection while raising support and investment into treatment research.

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Pepperstone founders and team

 

Pepperstone was founded by Owen Kerr and Joe Davenport. They both serve on the board of the company. The company does not release detailed information about its management team and corporate structure. 

IG Group’s Tamas Szabo took over as CEO in 2017,  after working at IG since 1999.

According to the company’s LinkedIn profile, Pepperstone has more than 400 employees globally. 

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Customer base

 

According to the company’s website, Pepperstone had over 300,000 registered account holders. The number of active retail trading accounts exceeded 110,000.
The broker processed an average of $9.2 billion of trades per day, based on all average Pepperstone trades from March 2018 until March 2020. 

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Competitors

 

Pepperstone is one of the world’s largest forex brokers and it caters to both seasoned and novice traders with a heavy focus on forex and CFD investments. Here’s the list of the best alternatives to Pepperstone, compiled on the basis of the BrokerChooser methodology: 

  • IC Markets - Australia-based global forex broker recommended for forex and CFD traders who value easy account opening and free deposit/withdrawal options
  • Axi - Australian forex broker recommended for forex traders familiar with the MetaTrader 4 platform
  • TMGM - Australia-based global forex broker recommended for forex traders who prefer the MetaTrader platform
  • Eightcap - Australian forex broker with a global presence, recommended for forex traders who prefer the MetaTrader platform

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Services offered

 

Pepperstone is primarily a forex broker with a wide selection of CFD products.

Forex 

Pepperstone’s forex portfolio includes 62 currency pairs, including a range of exotic pairs. The broker offers up to 30:1 leverage, which you can reduce manually at any time. This is a very useful feature in terms of risk management as higher leverage means bigger potential losses. You can also place stop loss orders with no restrictions. All FX trades are filled in full, with no partial execution or requotes on market orders. Forex spreads depend on the type of account you choose.

CFDs

The CFD product portfolio consists of stocks, indexes, ETFs, commodities and cryptocurrencies.  

Available cryptos include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Polkadot and others. Cryptos are not available to UK retail consumers, as per FCA ruling.
Clients also have access to 600+ US stocks as share CFDs, including large-cap companies like Boeing, Facebook, Apple, Exxon and Alibaba. In addition, the share CFD selection includes 100 popular UK stocks, a number of German shares as well as more than 100 Australian shares. You'll need MetaTrader 5 to trade share CFDs. There is no stamp duty to be paid on UK CFD trades. 
For all CFD trades, you can change the leverage in the secure Client Area. 


Social trading, spread betting 

Pepperstone has partnered with multiple social trading platforms, through which clients can access copy trading features including Myfxbook, Mirror Trader, MetaTrader Signals and DupliTrade.

UK and Irish clients can use Pepperstone’s spread betting services. In the UK, spread betting profits are exempt from capital gains tax and stamp duty. 

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Countries served

 

Pepperstone accepts customers from all over the world with some notable exceptions, including the US, Canada, New Zealand and Japan.

Pepperstone investor protection
Country of clients Protection amount Regulator Legal entity
UK £85,000 FCA Pepperstone Limited
Germany, Austria €20,000 BaFin Pepperstone GmbH
Other European countries €20,000 CySec Pepperstone EU Limited
Middle-Eastern countries No protection DFSA Pepperstone Financial Services Limited
Australia No protection ASIC Pepperstone Group Limited
African countries No protection CMA Pepperstone Markets Kenya Limited
All other clients No protection SCB Pepperstone Markets Limited

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Legal Entities

 

Pepperstone operates through the following legal entities: 

  1. Pepperstone Group Limited - regulated by ASIC (Australian Securities & Investments Commission)

  2. Pepperstone Markets Limited - regulated by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB)

  3. Pepperstone EU Limited - regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC )

  4. Pepperstone Financial Services (DIFC) Limited - regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) - 

  5. Pepperstone GmbH - regulated by the federal Financial Supervisory Authority in Germany (BaFin )

  6. Pepperstone Markets Kenya Limited - regulated by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA )

  7. Pepperstone Limited -  regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK

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Regulation

 

Pepperstone is licensed and regulated by the following authorities: 

  • Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK
  • Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in Australia
  • Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in Cyprus
  • BaFin (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) in Germany
  • Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in the UAE
  • Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in Kenya
  • Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB)

Visit Pepperstone
75.2% of retail CFD accounts lose money

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Further reading:

 

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.

author
Edith Balázs
Author of this article
I bring 20+ years of experience as a correspondent having worked for Bloomberg, Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal covering macroeconomics, stock, currency and fixed-income markets. I hold a Master's degree in American Studies and Journalism.
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