Swissquote Bank Review 2021

4.5

By 6 User Reviews

Regulated By:DFSA, FCA, FINMA, MAS, MFSA, SFC

Foundation Year:1996

Headquarters:Chemin de la Créteaux 33, 1196 Gland, Switzerland

Min Deposit:$1000

Open Account

Trading involves risks. Products and services of Swissquote are only intended for those permitted to receive them under local law.

Jitan Solanki

Last updated: Apr 01, 2021

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“Swissquote Bank is an entity of Swissquote Group Holdings, a company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SQN). The bank offers clients the ability to trade FX, FX Options, Precious Metals, Indices, Commodities and Bonds through the bank’s own Advanced Trader platform and MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms.”

Swissquote Bank is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and is a member of the Swiss Bankers Association. They operate the www.swissquote.com domain name which is the focus of this review.

Its parent company, Swissquote Group Holdings Ltd, is also listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SQN) and they also have Swissquote Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the FCA and Swissquote Bank Europe which is supervised in Luxembourg by the CSSF.

Swissquote Bank offers 130+ markets covering FX, Precious Metals, Indices, Commodities, Bonds as well as 46 FX Options. Clients can choose from three account types called Standard, Premium and Prime all offering zero commission trading. Demo and swap-free accounts are also available.

The bank uses a proprietary agency/principal execution model for speed and reliability and offers its own Advanced Trader platform for Desktop, Web and Mobile. Additional platforms include MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 with additional plugins such as the MetaTrader Master Edition, Autochartist and Trading Central.

All clients receive access to an eBanking portal with a personal Swiss IBAN account number. Deposits can be made via wire transfer and debit/credit card but withdrawals can only be made via wire transfer. While the broker does not charge any fees, there may be third party fees for some deposit and withdrawal methods. There is also an inactivity account fee after six months of no trading activity.

There is a range of research and educational materials available which includes Morning News, Articles, eBooks, Trading courses, Podcasts and YouTube Videos. The bank also provides multilingual customer support 24/7 through Live Chat, Phone, Email, and an Online Contact Form.

Pros:	Cons:
Trade with a highly regulated Swiss bank 130+ markets to trade on commission-free Access to eBanking portal and personal Swiss IBAN number. Proprietary FX platform integrating TradingView charts. Quality research and education content	Wealth of products may be daunting for complete beginners.

General Information

Official Site:https://www.swissquote.com/forex

Demo:Open Demo Account

Regulated By:DFSA, FCA, FINMA, MAS, MFSA, SFC

Foundation Year:1996

Headquarters:Chemin de la Créteaux 33, 1196 Gland, Switzerland

Min Deposit:$1000

Max Leverage:100

Publicly Traded:Yes

Deposit Options:Credit Card, Cryptocurrencies, Wire Transfer

Withdrawal Options:Wire Transfer

Tradable Assets:Currencies, Commodities, Indices, Stocks, Bonds, Crypto, Futures, Mutual Funds, Options

Trading Platforms:Advanced Trader, MT4, MT5

Commission on Trades:No

Fixed spreads:No

Trading Desk Type:Bank, Dealing Desk, Market Maker, No dealing desk

OS Compatibility:Desktop platform (Windows), Desktop platform (Mac), Web platform

Mobile trading:Android, iOS

Accepts US Clients:No

Investor Protection & Regulations

“Swissquote Bank Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and is a member of the Swiss Bankers Association. Its parent company, Swissquote Group Holdings Ltd is also listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SQN).”

Swissquote Bank Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Swiss Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), as confirmed on the regulator’s website:

Swissquote Bank Ltd includes various other entities which are authorised and regulated in their own jurisdictions that include:

Swissquote Ltd (London, UK) – authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Swissquote Asia Ltd (Hong Kong, China) – licenced under the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)
Swissquote MEA Ltd (Dubai, UAE) – licenced by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)
Swissquote PTE Ltd (Singapore) – the company holds a Capital Markets Services licence granted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

Swissquote Bank’s parent company, Swissquote Group Holdings Ltd, is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SQN), thus providing a high level of transparency and oversight.

Swissquote provides further security of client funds by following the below regulatory requirements:

Member of the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA)
Part of the depositor protection agreement

Tradable Products

“Swissquote Bank offers clients the ability to trade on more than 130+ markets covering FX, Precious Metals, Indices, Commodities and Bonds. The Bank also provides access to trade on 46 FX Options.”

Swissquote Bank offers clients the ability to trade on more than 130+ markets covering FX, Precious Metals, Indices, Commodities and Bonds. The Bank also provides access to trade on 46 FX Options. Below is a list of just some of the available markets for trading:

Forex	Metals	Indices
EURUSD	UK100	SP500
GBPUSD	US30	US100
USDCAD	JPN225	DE30
EURJPY	DAX30	UK100
GBPAUD	Commodities	Bonds
NZDCAD	US Oil	US T-Bond
AUDUSD	UK Oil	UK Long Gilt
EURGBP	Natural Gas	German Bund

* Details regarding the available assets are taken from the Swissquote Bank website and trading platform and are correct at the time of this review. You can find a more detailed list here.

Trading costs such as spreads and overnight funding (swap) rates vary depending on the account type opened and instrument being traded and are covered further down this review.

Account Opening

“Swissquote Bank offers clients three main account types called Standard, Premium and Prime. They also provide demo and Islamic (swap-free) accounts.”

Swissquote Bank offers clients four main account types called Standard, Premium, Prime and Professional as well as Demo and Islamic (swap-free) accounts. The main features of each account are summarised in the below table:

	Standard	Premium	Prime
Minimum deposit	1,000 USD	10,000 USD	50,000 USD
Average Spreads from	1.7 pips	1.4 pips	1.1 pips
Leverage*	1:100	1:100	1:100
Commissions	Zero Commissions	Zero Commissions	Zero Commissions

Every account type also received these extra features:

Personal IBAN Number: Swiss IBAN containing your account number
eBanking Portal: Account-to-account cash transfer and more
Deposit Protection: Up to 100,00 CHF in the event of bankruptcy proceedings

The main differences between each account are the minimum deposit requirements and the average spreads. Essentially, the higher the deposit the tighter the spreads are.

Users can open a new account in just four steps which are described below:

Personal Information: Name, Date of Birth, Nationality, Contact Number and Address.
Client Profile: Employment Status and Tax residence, Declaration of “non-US person” or “US person” status.
Financial Information: Desired trading platform and currency denomination of your account, wealth and source of funds.
Review: Verify all details entered above and submit video identification with ID and passport. Proof of residence will also need to be uploaded (utility bill or bank statement – not more than 3 months old). All documents can also be submitted by post.

The Application form is shown below:

Swissquote Bank Ltd does not accept users from the following restricted countries: Canada, United States, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Malta, Uruguay.

Deposit & Withdrawals Options

“Clients can deposit via wire transfer or via debit/credit card but withdrawals can only be made via wire transfer.”

Clients can deposit via wire transfer or via debit/credit card but withdrawals can only be made via wire transfer. While the broker does charge any deposit or withdrawal fees, there are third party fees for some deposit and withdrawal methods, which are shown in the below table:

	Deposit	Deposit	Withdrawal	Processing Time
	Swissquote	3rd Party Providers	–	–
Wire Transfer	Free		Fees from: 2 CHF (within Switzerland) 10 USD 10 GBP	Up to 1 working day
Visa	Free	2.2% in CHF/EUR/GBP, 2.5% in USD.	N/A	Instant (max. 2h)*
Mastercard	Free	2.2% in CHF/EUR/GBP	N/A	Instant (max. 2h)*

* Monday to Friday, 8:00 – 22:00 CET

Clients can deposit and withdraw funds via the eBanking portal which provides comprehensive payment and transfer services.

Web & Desktop Trading Platforms

“Swissquote offers clients the ability to trade on its own proprietary Advanced Trader platform as well as the MetaTrader 4 and Metatrader 5 platforms.”

Swissquote offers clients the ability to trade on its own proprietary Advanced Trader platform as well as the MetaTrader 4 and Metatrader 5 platforms. The platform features are highlighted below:

Swissquote Advanced Trader Web

50+ Charting tools
80+ Technical indicators
Synchronized chart layouts
Multiple Order Types
Integrated Trading View charts

Swissquote Advanced Trader Desktop

27 Indicators
Multiple order types
Customisable interface
Automatic pattern detection

Swissquote MetaTrader 4

9 timeframes
24 analytical objects
30 built-in indicators
Expert Advisors

Swissquote MetaTrader 5

21 timeframes
44 analytical objects
80 built-in indicators
Advanced Charting

A screenshot of the Swissquote Advanced Trader web platform is shown below and is covered in more detail in the video review.

Mobile Trading Platforms

“Swissquote offers clients the ability to access mobile trading on the go from the Advanced Trader Mobile App as well as the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 Mobile Apps.”

Swissquote offers clients the ability to access mobile trading on the go from the Advanced Trader Mobile App as well as the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 Mobile Apps.

All three apps are available on both Android and iOS systems and can be downloaded from the Google PlayStore or Apple AppStore respectively.

The Swissquote Advanced Trader mobile trading app provides a range of different features including:

Multiple order types
Real-time pricing and charts
Live trading on the go
Printable financial reports
Supports 8 languages

The Swissquote mobile trading app is covered in more detail in the video review.

Trading Features

“Swissquote provides a range of trading features including plugins for Trading Central, MetaTrader Master Edition and AutoChartist. Eligible clients can also access FIX API.”

Swissquote provides a range of trading features including plugins for Trading Central, MetaTrader Master Edition and AutoChartist. The plugins are available to all clients and can be added to both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms for extra functionality.

The main features of each are described below:

Trading Central Plug-in: Access Daily Market Reports, Analyst Views, Adaptive Divergence Convergence and more.
MetaTrader Master Edition Plug-in: Provides additional features such as Correlation Matrix, Stealth Orders, Trade Terminal, Mini Terminal and more.
AutoChartist Plug-in: Provides Automated Technical Analysis and Trade Alerts, Volatility Scanner, Event impact analysis and more.

The bank also uses a proprietary agency/principal execution model for speed and reliability achieving a 9ms execution speed and 100% fill ratio. Clients with a minimum of $50,000 in their accounts can also benefit from FIX API which provides high-speed connectivity, ultra-low latency, access to deep liquidity pools and competitive pricing.

Commissions & Spreads

“Standard, Premium and Prime accounts offer varying spreads but all three offer commission-free trading. There is, however, a 10 USD commission for FX options if below the commission threshold.”

Standard, Premium and Prime accounts offer varying spreads but all three offer commission-free trading.

Although the majority of products are commission-free, FX Options and Forwards do have a commission.

FX Options positions are charged at a 10 USD commission if below the commission threshold.
Forwards positions are charged per round-turn at 10 USD for Standard accounts, 5 USD for Premium accounts, and 0 USD for Prime accounts.

The screenshot below shows the average spreads for each account type:

	Standard	Premium	Prime
EURUSD	1.7	1.4	1.1
US 500	1.15	0.85	0.65
Gold	0.29	0.26	0.23
Forward US. T-Bond	0.05	0.05	0.05

For Non-Islamic accounts, overnight funding or ‘swap’ fees are charged on positions that remain open overnight (22:00) GMT. If positions are being held over the weekend a three-day ‘swap’ charge will be charged on Wednesdays. The bank provides swap rates and fees on their website which can be found on the ‘Spreads and Swaps’ page.

There is also an inactivity fee charged after six months of no trading activity at 10 units (per month) of the base account currency.

Bonus & Promotions

“At the time of writing, Swissquote Bank offers a ‘Refer a Friend’ Bonus.’’

At the time of writing, Swissquote Bank offers a ‘Refer a Friend’ Bonus. Once the friend has funded their account, both the referrer and the friend will receive a bonus on their accounts proportional to the deposit, as detailed below.

*Amount in CHF*	Standard	Premium	Prime	VIP
Minimum deposit Referred Friend	5,000	10,000	50,000	100,000
Bonus Referrer	100	200	400	800
Bonus Referred Friend	50	100	200	400

Customer Support

“Swissquote offers multilingual customer support via phone, email and live chat. The dealing desk operates 24 hours from Sunday 23:00 CET to 23:00 Friday CET and the payment card help desk is open 24/7.”

Swissquote offers multilingual (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Russia, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese) customer support via phone and email between 9:00 -18:00 CET Monday to Friday. Similarly, live chat is only available between Monday – Friday, 03:00 – 18:00 CET.

The dealing desk operates 24 hours from Sunday 23:00 CET to 23:00 Friday CET and the payment card help desk is open 24/7. There is also a contact form and comprehensive support hub with various account and trading-related questions that can be found on the ‘Support’ page.

After submitting a question through the live chat we were connected to an agent who answered our question within 1 minute, as shown below:

Contact Information

Address: Swissquote Bank SA, Chemin de la Crétaux 33, P.O. Box 319, 1196 Gland, Switzerland.

Email: fx@swissquote.com

Phone:

Reception +41 22 999 94 11
Customer Care Center 0848 25 88 88 / From abroad: +41 44 825 88 88
Forex +41 44 825 87 77

Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/swissquote
https://twitter.com/Swissquote
https://www.linkedin.com/company/swissquote/mycompany/
https://www.youtube.com/user/SwissquoteBank

Research

“Swissquote Bank offers a wide variety of market research including Morning News, Themes Trading, Market Talk Podcasts, Investors Magazine, and Daily Market Talk videos on Youtube.”

Swissquote Bank offers a wide variety of market research including News, Themes Trading, Market Talk Podcasts, Investors Magazine, and Daily Market Talk videos on YouTube. A brief summary is given below:

Morning News: ‘Topic of the Day News’ plus news covering stock markets in Europe, the US, and Asia.
Themes Trading Articles: Trading themes based on a common theme such as Online Gaming, Blockchain, Post-Pandemic Recovery and more.
Podcasts: Market and finance-related insights by Senior Market Analyst, Ipek Ozkardeskaya.
Magazine: Interviews and in-depth articles on key market players from Switzerland and abroad.
YouTube: Daily ‘Market Talk’ videos covering the latest news and upcoming events.
Spotify: Daily Market Talk podcast to listen on the move!

The research is regularly updated and is available through a variety of mediums including articles, videos and podcasts. The content is high-quality and is suitable for beginners and advanced traders.

Trader Education

“Swissquote offers several educational resources including an Education Center which covers Trading Courses, Webinars, eBooks, Trading Glossary and a Blog.”

Swissquote offers several educational resources including an Education Center which covers Trading Courses, Webinars, eBooks, Trading Glossary and a Blog. Below is a small summary of the main educational resources on offer:

Trading Courses: YouTube videos covering the basics of trading including topics such as “Trade the Right Way” and “Master Forex”.
Webinars: Live and on-demand videos available in multiple languages covering specific markets, products or advanced tools on the trading platforms.
eBooks: Large selection of topics including “Chart patterns & technical indicators” and “How to Manage Risk in Forex.
Trading Glossary: Explanations of popular trading terminology.
Blog: The blog covers articles on Investment, Derivatives, Swiss Dot, Forex, Crypto and more.

Further, the Swissquote YouTube channel also contains additional education videos that are available in additional languages. Great material for both beginners and advanced traders.

Trading Experience

“Swissquote Bank provides a great all-round service to clients allowing them to access over 130+ markets covering FX, FX Options, Precious Metals, Indices, Commodities and Bonds all through its proprietary Advanced Trader platform and the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms.”

From our observations, Swissquote Bank provides a comprehensive and highly competitive trading offering. Clients can choose from three commission-free trading accounts accessing over 130+ markets covering Forex, Indices, Metals, Commodities and Bonds, in addition to 46 FX Options. All clients also get access to an eBanking portal with their own personal Swiss IBAN.

The bank’s web-based Advanced Trader platform is also feature-rich and integrates with one of the most popular charting platforms – Tradingview. Clients who prefer desktop platforms can also use MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 with additional trading features which include the Trading Central, MetaTrader Master Edition and Autochartist plugins.

Research and educational material is also great and covers content that is relevant, detailed and updated regularly through a variety of mediums including articles, videos, and podcasts.

FAQ

Is Swissquote regulated?

Yes, by the Swiss Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

Where is Swissquote based?

Swissquote Bank SA, Chemin de la Crétaux 33, P.O. Box 319, 1196 Gland, Switzerland.

How does Swissquote make money?

Swissquote makes money mainly through commissions, spreads and swaps on certain asset classes.

How do I deposit in Swissquote account?

Funds can be deposited into a trading account via bank wire transfer, Visa or MasterCard.

What is the min. deposit for Swissquote?

The minimum deposit is $1000.

How do I withdraw money from Swissquote?

Withdrawals can be made via wire transfer.

What is the max leverage in Swissquote?

1:100.

How do I open an account with Swissquote?

An account can be opened at the click of a button on the Swissquote website and can be done in just a few steps.

Does Swissquote use MetaTrader?

Yes, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5.

Conclusion

“Swissquote Bank is an entity of Swissquote Group Holdings, a company listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SQN). The bank offers clients the ability to trade FX, FX Options, Precious Metals, Indices, Commodities and Bonds through the bank’s own Advanced Trader platform and MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms.”

All clients receive access to an eBanking portal with a personal Swiss IBAN account number. Deposits can be made via wire transfer and debit/credit card but withdrawals can only be made via wire transfer. Fees do apply for both deposits and withdrawals depending on the method chosen and there is also an inactivity account fee after six months of no trading activity.