Personal Finance Bank accounts

Is IG Trading Platform Safe?

Paola Faben Oliveira

26.03.24

Read time 2 minutes

Thinking of using IG for spread betting, investments or CFD trading? Launched in 1974, the IG trading platform has grown rapidly and now serves over 300,000 customers all over the world. It reportedly covers over 17,000 markets.¹

But the big question you’ll be asking before using any trading platform is - is it safe? After all, you’ll be investing your hard-earned cash, so you’ll want to know that security is as strong as possible.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about security with IG trading. This includes how the platform safeguards your money, and other safety measures it has in place for your protection.

We’ll also show you another option for growing your money, with Wise Interest.

Remember that investments, even in a low-risk fund, are never guaranteed. Capital at risk.

How does IG safeguard your money?

The first thing to know about IG is that it is fully authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.

The second is what IG does with your money.

When you invest using IG, your funds are ring-fenced in segregated client bank accounts at regulated banks. This includes trusted names such as Barclays and Lloyds. Client money is also distributed between banks as much as possible, to prevent too much being held in one place.²

Additionally, assets are held by a custodian in segregated client asset accounts.²

This all means that whatever you invest and earn is kept completely separate to IG’s own funds and assets. So, IG can’t use your money for its own business activities.

More importantly, it means that your money and assets should be protected should IG ever become insolvent. If IG did go under, you should get your money back and any shortfall up to £85,000 may be compensated by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).²

Other IG security measures

IG also uses additional security processes to protect your account, funds and your confidential data. These include:

Risk management tools

2-factor authentication to safeguard access to your account³

24-hour support from a team of experts

256-bit SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption, which is the industry standard for online financial transactions.⁴

Is there anything else I need to know about IG?

If you’re checking out a trading platform to make sure it’s legit, you’ll want to know what both customers and industry professionals think of it.

IG has won a number of industry awards, including Best Customer Service at the Online Money Awards 2022.¹

The company also has a ‘Great’ score of 4.1 over on TrustPilot, based on over 6,650 reviews from current and former clients.⁵

Earn returns on GBP, EUR and USD with Wise Interest

If it turns out that trading on IG isn’t for you, there are a few other ways you can potentially grow your money. One of these is with Wise.

Known as an international money transfer specialist, Wise has a new feature called Wise Interest, which lets you earn returns on balances held in GBP, USD and EUR. Your money is invested in a fund which holds government-guaranteed assets.

All you need to do is open a Wise multi-currency account, turn on Interest and you’ll get returns added to your money every working day.

Best of all, you can access every penny, dollar and cent of your money whenever you need it. So if you need to send money overseas, convert it to another currency or withdraw it to your bank account - that’s no problem. You can do it in just a couple of clicks.

However, it’s important to remember that investments, even in a low-risk fund, are never guaranteed. Capital at risk.

Remember that when it comes to online trading and investments, security and risk are two different things. There’s always risk involved with trading and investments.

Sources used:

Sources last checked on date: 26 March 2024

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