Best Forex Brokers and Trading Apps in Pakistan

Forex trading companies in Pakistan are, in practice, international brokers. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) does not issue a local licence for retail online forex or CFD brokers. Pakistani residents who trade currencies, gold or index CFDs online therefore open accounts with firms licensed abroad, by regulators such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) or the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), or by offshore authorities in places like Seychelles or the British Virgin Islands.

The ranking above orders seven of those international brokers by their overall Fintrev score. AvaTrade leads at 4.7 out of 5, and Plus500 closes the list at 4.3, a narrow 0.4-point range. The order shows which broker scored best across all the factors combined. It does not show which one suits your deposit size, trading style, platform preference or funding route from Pakistan, and those questions decide the choice for most traders. On them the differences are clearer. Exness has the lowest EUR/USD all-in cost at 0.10 pips but requires a $200 deposit. FOREX.com and Pepperstone both cost 0.70 pips with a $0 minimum: FOREX.com offers 7,000 symbols under a 1:50 leverage cap, and Pepperstone offers MetaTrader, cTrader and up to 1:500. IG holds the most licences at 13. Interactive Brokers fits traders who want foreign shares and futures alongside forex, and Plus500 is a CFD specialist with its own platform. AvaTrade combines the top score with a broad, well-supervised group and learning resources.

Two points matter more for a Pakistani trader than for someone in the UK or Australia. The first is which legal entity of the broker will hold your account, because a group licensed by the FCA may onboard Pakistani clients through a different subsidiary with weaker protections. The second is how money gets into and out of the account, because every deposit and withdrawal crosses Pakistan’s foreign exchange system, which the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) controls.

How the ranking is ordered

Each broker’s position comes from its overall score, which draws on six areas: regulation, client protection, track record, reputation, platforms and costs. Understanding what each area measures helps you decide whether a higher overall score actually reflects the things you care about.

Regulation covers who licenses the broker and how many licences the group holds. The licence count (from 8 for FOREX.com to 13 for IG) counts licences across the group; it does not measure the protection a Pakistani client receives. A broker with 13 licences may still serve you through one entity, and that single entity’s regulator is the one that matters for your account.

Client protection concerns the safeguards attached to the money you deposit: segregation of client funds from the broker’s own money, negative balance protection (which prevents your account from going below zero after a sharp move), and any compensation scheme that applies if the firm fails. These protections depend heavily on the jurisdiction of the entity. An FCA-authorized firm’s retail clients may fall under the UK’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme; a client of the same group’s offshore subsidiary generally does not.

Track record looks at how long the broker has operated and how it has behaved over that period. A long operating history across market crises is a useful signal, though it says nothing on its own about a firm’s current terms.

Reputation reflects how clients and the wider market view the broker, including public review platforms. Review scores are each platform’s own metric, built from reviews that customers choose to write.

Platforms covers the trading software available: proprietary apps, MetaTrader 4 and 5, cTrader and TradingView connectivity.

Costs covers what you pay to trade, mainly spreads and commissions, measured as the EUR/USD all-in cost where one is available.

Because the six areas combine into one number, a broker can rank highly with strong regulation and reputation while being only average on costs, or rank lower despite being cheap. If cost is your main concern, the all-in cost will guide you better than the rank position. If safety of funds is your main concern, the licence count and the specific regulators behind each broker deserve more weight than the platform range.

What the scores and labels tell you

Score gaps are small

Five of the seven brokers sit between 4.5 and 4.7. Exness and FOREX.com share 4.6, and Pepperstone and IG share 4.5. At the precision shown, second and third place are level, as are fourth and fifth. Interactive Brokers at 4.4 and Plus500 at 4.3 appear under “Other brokers,” but they are a tenth or two behind the leaders, not a different class.

Treat the ranking as a shortlist. Any of the seven passed the same overall assessment with similar results, so the deciding factors should be the specific differences that affect your account.

The “best for” labels

Each broker carries one label. Here is what each one rests on:

• Highest Fintrev score (AvaTrade): AvaTrade’s 4.7 is the top overall score in the list.
• Lowest EUR/USD cost (Exness): Exness has an all-in EUR/USD cost of 0.10 pips, against 0.70 pips for FOREX.com and Pepperstone. AvaTrade, IG, Interactive Brokers and Plus500 have no all-in figure, so the label compares Exness with the two brokers that do.
• Lowest minimum deposit (FOREX.com): FOREX.com has a $0 minimum deposit. Pepperstone, IG, Interactive Brokers and Plus500 also require $0, so this is a shared lowest value rather than a unique one.
• Most tier-1 licences (IG): IG has 13 licences, the highest count in the list. The figure is the total licence count; read the regulators themselves to see which are top-tier.
• Highest Trustpilot rating (Pepperstone): in our global broker ranking, Pepperstone’s Trustpilot rating is 4.2 from 3,734 reviews, below 4.8 for AvaTrade and 4.7 for Exness and FOREX.com, so this label does not match those ratings.
• Most platforms (Interactive Brokers) and Longest track record (Plus500): these describe the broker’s standing within this list on those two methodology areas.

Forex trading in Pakistan: the legal and regulatory position

The SECP

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan regulates the country’s capital markets, the corporate sector and non-banking financial companies. Its securities powers rest on the Securities Act, 2015. It licenses stock brokers who are members of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) and brokers on the Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX), the country’s regulated commodity futures exchange.

What the SECP does not do is license retail online brokers that offer leveraged forex and CFD trading over the counter. No international broker in this ranking holds an SECP licence for that business, and none needs one to accept Pakistani clients under the current framework.

The SECP does publish warnings and advisories about entities that solicit investment from the public without authority. These warnings often concern local schemes that promise fixed returns from “forex trading,” pooled investment arrangements run through social media, and firms that use the language of investing to collect deposits. A broker licensed by a foreign regulator is a different thing from an unregistered local scheme, but searching the SECP’s website for a firm’s name before you deposit is a quick check that costs nothing.

The State Bank of Pakistan and authorized dealers

The State Bank of Pakistan is the central bank. It sets monetary policy, issues the Pakistani rupee (PKR) and controls foreign exchange under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947. Its Foreign Exchange Operations and related departments supervise how foreign currency enters and leaves the country.

In practice, the SBP’s rules are applied by authorized dealers: commercial banks licensed by the SBP to deal in foreign exchange. When you send money abroad, including to a broker, the transfer goes through an authorized dealer bank, which decides whether the purpose of the remittance is permitted under the SBP’s rules and what documentation it needs. Exchange companies licensed by the SBP handle cash currency exchange and certain remittances, but they are not the same as authorized dealer banks.

This is where trading from Pakistan becomes practical rather than theoretical. Opening an account with a foreign broker is one step; funding it is another. A bank may ask about the purpose of a transfer, decline it, or apply limits. Card payments to foreign merchants are also subject to the bank’s own rules and the SBP framework for card usage abroad. Rules in this area change, so the bank holding your account is the authority on what it will process.

Is it legal?

Pakistan has no law that creates a licence for retail online forex brokers, and residents widely use international brokers. That is not the same as a clear statutory permission. The money side of the activity falls under foreign exchange regulation, and the rules that apply to your transfers are the SBP’s, applied by your bank. If you trade with significant sums, a conversation with your bank about permitted remittance purposes, and with a tax adviser about reporting gains, will answer questions that a broker cannot.

Locally regulated alternatives

If you want exposure to markets through an SECP-regulated channel, two exist. The Pakistan Stock Exchange lists local shares and other securities through licensed PSX brokers. The Pakistan Mercantile Exchange lists futures contracts, including contracts on international commodities such as gold and crude oil, traded through PMEX-licensed brokers. These are exchange-traded products with exchange rules and local oversight, which is a structural difference from the over-the-counter CFDs offered by the international brokers in this ranking.

Which entity will hold your account

Large brokers are groups of companies. Each subsidiary holds its own licence, and each serves clients from a defined set of countries. A broker that lists the FCA, ASIC and CySEC among its regulators may still open a Pakistani client’s account under its Seychelles, Mauritius, Bahamas or British Virgin Islands subsidiary. This is a standard industry arrangement, not a sign of wrongdoing, but it changes what protection you get.

Each group holds licences from several regulators, among them:

• AvaTrade: Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), FSC of the British Virgin Islands, ASIC, FSCA (South Africa), FSA (Japan)
• Exness: FCA, CySEC, FSA of Seychelles, FSCA, FSC of the British Virgin Islands
• FOREX.com: FCA, CySEC, BaFin, CIRO (Canada), ASIC
• Pepperstone: FCA, ASIC, DFSA (Dubai), CySEC, FSA of Seychelles
• IG: FCA, BaFin, ASIC, FINMA (Switzerland), FSCA
• Interactive Brokers: CFTC/NFA and SEC/FINRA (US), CIRO, ASIC, CBI
• Plus500: FCA, ASIC, CySEC, FMA (New Zealand), FSCA

None of these tells you which entity serves Pakistan. To find out:

1. Read the client agreement before you fund. The legal name of the contracting company appears near the top. Note the company name and registration number.
2. Find that entity’s regulator. The broker’s legal or regulation page usually maps each entity to its licence.
3. Search the regulator’s own register for the entity name and licence number. A licence that appears on the broker’s site but not on the register is a red flag.
4. Check what the entity offers. Leverage limits, negative balance protection and compensation scheme coverage are set by the entity’s regulator. The terms that apply to you are the ones in the agreement you sign.

Regulators fall roughly into tiers. Bodies such as the FCA, ASIC, FINMA, BaFin, the US CFTC and SEC, and Japan’s FSA impose capital requirements, conduct rules and client money rules backed by active enforcement. CySEC, the DFSA and FSCA are significant regulators with established frameworks. Offshore authorities generally impose lighter requirements and, in many cases, no compensation scheme for retail clients. An account with an offshore entity of a well-regulated group is a different risk from an account with an FCA entity, even under the same brand. The group’s reputation and parent-level supervision still count for something, but the specific protections in your contract come from the entity that signs it.

Comparing the brokers where the data shows differences

The seven brokers are close in score. The differences worth acting on are in costs, deposit requirements, licensing breadth, market range and broker type. For any of them, confirm three things before you fund: which entity will open your account, since its regulator sets your leverage and protections; current EUR/USD pricing for your account type at AvaTrade, IG, Interactive Brokers and Plus500, which have no all-in figure; and current Trustpilot ratings, given the mismatch noted above for the Pepperstone label.

AvaTrade

AvaTrade has the highest overall score in the ranking at 4.7, with 10 licences and 1,250 tradeable symbols. It operates as a market maker, meaning it typically takes the other side of client trades rather than passing every order to outside liquidity providers. Market making is a common and legitimate model for retail CFD brokers; what matters is how the broker manages the conflict of interest, which is one of the things a strong regulator supervises.

Its licences include the Central Bank of Ireland, ASIC and Japan’s FSA alongside the BVI’s FSC, so the group operates under several demanding regimes as well as an offshore one. AvaTrade is known for a wide choice of platforms, educational courses and copy trading support. Traders who place a premium on a broad, well-supervised group with learning resources will find its top score reflects that mix.

Exness

Exness has the lowest EUR/USD all-in cost among the brokers with a published figure: 0.10 pips. Its account charges no commission, so the spread is the whole cost. Exness is the only broker in this list with a minimum deposit above zero, at $200.

Exness combines STP, NDD and market maker models, and its maximum leverage is 1:Unlimited. Unlimited leverage means that, on some account configurations, the margin required to open a position can be extremely small relative to its size. That can matter to a trader who wants to hold positions with minimal margin, but it also means a small account can control positions large enough to be wiped out by an ordinary price move.

Exness suits a trader for whom a low EUR/USD cost is the priority and who is comfortable meeting a $200 initial deposit. Its regulators include the FCA and CySEC, but also the FSA of Seychelles and the FSC of the British Virgin Islands.

FOREX.com

FOREX.com has a $0 minimum deposit, 8 licences and 7,000 tradeable symbols, the largest symbol count among the brokers with a published figure. Its EUR/USD all-in cost is 0.70 pips, its maximum leverage is 1:50, and its commission-based pricing charges $7 per $100,000 traded.

FOREX.com’s regulators are all well-established supervisors. Its 1:50 maximum is far lower than the leverage Exness or Pepperstone offer. For some traders that is a limitation; for others, especially newer traders, a lower ceiling is a practical brake on position sizes.

FOREX.com fits a trader who wants a large symbol range from mainstream supervisors and a small starting deposit.

Pepperstone

Pepperstone also has a $0 minimum deposit and a 0.70 pips EUR/USD all-in cost, the same as FOREX.com. It has 9 licences, operates as ECN, STP and NDD, offers maximum leverage of 1:500, and charges a variable commission, typically $3.50 per lot per side.

Per side means the commission is charged when you open the trade and again when you close it. On a one standard lot round trip, $3.50 per side becomes $7. On EUR/USD, where one pip on a standard lot is worth $10, $7 is equal to 0.7 pips, which is consistent with the 0.70 pips all-in cost on a raw spread near zero.

Pepperstone supports MetaTrader and cTrader, which makes it a practical choice for traders who run automated strategies or copy trading through those platforms. The no-dealing-desk classification appeals to traders who prefer their orders routed to external liquidity.

IG

IG has the most licences in the list at 13, with regulators including the FCA, BaFin, ASIC, FINMA and FSCA, and a $0 minimum deposit. Its model combines market maker, NDD and DMA (direct market access), reflecting different execution routes for different products.

A large number of licences shows a group operating across many jurisdictions under demanding supervisors. If regulatory breadth and an established brand carry the most weight in your decision, IG ranks highest on that single measure in this list.

Interactive Brokers and Plus500

Interactive Brokers scores 4.4 and carries the “Most platforms” label. Its regulators include US supervisors (CFTC/NFA and SEC/FINRA), CIRO, ASIC and the Central Bank of Ireland, and its model is DMA and NDD. Interactive Brokers is a multi-asset broker built around exchange access: alongside forex, it offers shares, ETFs, options and futures on exchanges around the world, through its own Trader Workstation (TWS) desktop platform as well as web and mobile apps. It has a $0 minimum deposit.

That matters to a Pakistani resident who wants foreign shares or futures rather than only forex and CFDs. It is also the broker in this list most oriented toward experienced traders; its platforms are powerful and can be demanding for beginners.

Plus500 scores 4.3 and carries the “Longest track record” label. Its regulators include the FCA, ASIC, CySEC, New Zealand’s FMA and South Africa’s FSCA, and it operates as a market maker with a $0 minimum deposit. Plus500 is a CFD specialist known for its proprietary platform, with a simpler product focus than Interactive Brokers.

Trading costs: reading the all-in figure

Forex costs come in two forms. The spread is the difference between the buy (ask) and sell (bid) prices; you pay it implicitly every time you open and close a trade. The commission is an explicit fee some accounts charge per lot or per amount traded. Spread-only accounts build the broker’s revenue into a wider spread; commission accounts typically show a tighter “raw” spread and add a commission.

The all-in cost combines the two into one number expressed in pips, so that accounts priced differently can be compared directly. For EUR/USD, the most traded pair, it is 0.10 pips for Exness and 0.70 pips for FOREX.com and Pepperstone.

A worked example

The following is a hypothetical calculation to show what a gap in all-in cost means in money. Assumptions: you trade EUR/USD, one standard lot is 100,000 euros, one pip is worth $10 per standard lot for a USD-quoted pair, and the all-in figures hold for your account type at the times you trade.

• At 0.10 pips, one standard lot round trip costs 0.10 × $10 = $1.
• At 0.70 pips, the same trade costs 0.70 × $10 = $7.
• The difference is $6 per standard lot round trip.
• A trader who completes 40 standard lots of round trips in a month would pay $40 at 0.10 pips and $280 at 0.70 pips, a gap of $240 for that month.

For a trader placing a handful of small trades each month, the gap may be a few dollars and less important than platform choice or funding convenience. For an active trader or scalper, the cost line can outweigh most other differences.

Costs the all-in figure leaves out

The all-in EUR/USD figure is one pair, one account type and one measurement basis. Other costs can matter as much:

• Spreads on other instruments. Gold, indices and minor or exotic pairs usually carry wider spreads than EUR/USD. If you mainly trade XAU/USD, compare gold pricing specifically; our guide to gold trading brokers covers that instrument.
• Variable spreads. Spreads typically widen around major news releases and during low-liquidity hours, such as the hour around the daily rollover.
• Overnight financing (swap). Holding a leveraged position past the daily rollover incurs a charge or credit based on the interest rate difference between the two currencies plus a broker markup.
• Currency conversion. If your account is in US dollars and you fund it from a PKR bank account, the conversion rate your bank or payment provider applies is a cost in itself, paid on the way in and again on the way out.
• Account and withdrawal fees. Some brokers charge inactivity fees after a period without trading, and payment methods may carry their own fees.

Leverage and margin

Leverage lets you open a position larger than your deposit. The broker holds a portion of your money as margin against the position. Leverage of 1:500 means a margin requirement of 1/500, or 0.2% of the position’s value.

Hypothetical example: a one standard lot EUR/USD position with a notional value of $110,000 (assuming EUR/USD at 1.10) would require $220 of margin at 1:500, and $2,200 at 1:50. A 1% move in the exchange rate changes the position’s value by $1,100. At 1:500 that is five times the margin posted; at 1:50 it is half.

The leverage ceiling only sets the minimum margin. It does not change how much a pip is worth or how much you gain or lose per pip. That depends on the position size you choose. Higher leverage simply lets you open a bigger position with the same deposit, which is why a high ceiling combined with large positions is the fastest route to a margin call or a stop-out.

The maximum leverage figures in our global ranking (1:Unlimited for Exness, 1:500 for Pepperstone, 1:50 for FOREX.com) are brand maximums. The leverage you are offered depends on the entity, the instrument and sometimes your account equity or trading history. Regulators such as the FCA and CySEC cap retail leverage on major forex pairs at 1:30; offshore entities often allow far more, which is one of the practical reasons Pakistani clients are placed with them.

CFDs and leveraged forex carry a high risk of losing money. Brokers regulated in the UK and EU must publish the percentage of their retail CFD accounts that lose money, and those disclosures generally show a majority of retail accounts losing.

Funding an account from Pakistan

Payment routes

International brokers usually accept some combination of bank wire transfers, debit and credit cards, and electronic wallets. Each route from Pakistan has its own considerations:

• Bank wire (SWIFT transfer). The transfer goes through your authorized dealer bank, which may ask for the purpose of the remittance and supporting documents. Your bank and any intermediary bank may charge fees, and the PKR to USD conversion rate is set by your bank.
• Debit or credit cards. Card payments to foreign merchants depend on whether your card is enabled for international use and on any limits your bank applies. Brokers often return card deposits to the same card before paying profits by another method.
• Electronic wallets and payment providers. Availability varies by broker and by what services operate in Pakistan at any time. If you deposit through a provider, you will usually need to withdraw through it as well.

Brokers apply anti-money-laundering rules that typically require the name on the payment method to match the name on the trading account. Deposits from a relative’s card or account are a common cause of rejected withdrawals.

Base currency and PKR

Most international brokers offer account base currencies such as USD, EUR and GBP. If PKR is not available as a base currency, every deposit from a rupee account is converted. Choosing a USD account limits conversions to one point in each direction, the transfer in and the withdrawal out. If you hold a foreign currency account at a Pakistani bank, funding from it may avoid a separate conversion step, subject to your bank’s rules on outward transfers from that account.

Withdrawals

Withdrawals are the real test of a broker relationship. Before you deposit, read the broker’s withdrawal policy: processing times, fees, the order in which payment methods are refunded, and the documents needed. Complete identity verification before your first deposit rather than at the point of first withdrawal; brokers will typically not release funds from an unverified account.

Trading apps and platforms

Each broker supports some combination of four third-party platforms, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradingView, alongside its own proprietary apps.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) was released in 2005 and remains a standard platform for retail forex. It supports Expert Advisors (automated strategies written in MQL4), custom indicators and a large ecosystem of third-party tools. Its weaknesses are age and a focus on forex and CFDs.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is the successor, released in 2010. It adds more timeframes, more order types, an economic calendar, a depth-of-market view and support for more asset classes. Strategies written for MT4 do not run on MT5 without rewriting, so traders with an existing MT4 setup should check which version a broker supports.

cTrader is an alternative to MetaTrader built around transparent order execution, depth of market and algorithmic trading in C#. It also has a built-in copy trading feature in many broker implementations.

TradingView is a charting and social platform. Brokers that integrate with it let you place trades directly from TradingView charts, which is attractive for traders who already do their analysis there.

Proprietary apps are the broker’s own web and mobile platforms. They are often simpler to start with and may include features not available in MetaTrader, such as integrated research or account management.

Islamic swap-free accounts

Many traders in Pakistan want accounts that avoid interest. In standard forex trading, a position held past the daily rollover earns or pays swap, which is derived from the interest rate difference between the two currencies. Because swap involves interest, many brokers offer Islamic or swap-free accounts that remove the overnight interest charge.

Swap-free does not always mean cost-free. Brokers use different approaches to cover the financing cost they would otherwise charge:

• A fixed administration fee per lot after a position has been held for a certain number of days.
• Wider spreads on the swap-free account than on the standard one.
• A limit on the instruments available swap-free, or on how long a position can be held without a fee.

Some scholars also consider other features of leveraged CFD trading when assessing whether an account is Sharia-compliant, so a “swap-free” label is the broker’s description of the account, not a religious ruling. Read the account terms for any fees that replace the swap. Our list of swap-free forex brokers compares brokers that offer these accounts.

Market hours in Pakistan time

The forex market runs 24 hours a day from Sunday evening to Friday evening, New York time. It opens at 5:00 p.m. New York time on Sunday and closes at 5:00 p.m. New York time on Friday. Pakistan Standard Time (PKT) is UTC+5 and Pakistan does not observe daylight saving time, so the conversion to Pakistan time shifts by one hour when the US and UK change their clocks.

Japan does not observe daylight saving time, so the Tokyo session in PKT stays the same year-round. The US and the UK change clocks on different dates in March and October/November, so for a few weeks each year the London and New York columns move independently.

The overlap of London and New York, roughly 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. PKT in the northern winter and 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in summer, typically brings the highest trading volume in major pairs and the tightest spreads. Major US economic releases, such as the monthly employment report and consumer price index, are usually published at 8:30 a.m. New York time, which is 6:30 p.m. PKT in winter and 5:30 p.m. in summer.

For CFDs, trading days are Monday to Friday, but each instrument follows its own schedule. Index and share CFDs generally track the hours of the underlying exchange, and gold and oil CFDs follow their own futures-linked timetables with a daily break. Each broker’s trading server runs on its own server time, often set to a European time zone, so the daily candle boundaries on your charts may not align with midnight in Pakistan.

How to choose a broker from the ranking

The ranking narrows the field to seven international brokers. A practical way to pick one:

1. Confirm the broker accepts Pakistani residents. Acceptance can change, so confirm during the account application.
2. Identify the entity and check its licence. Follow the register check described above and decide whether you are comfortable with that entity’s protections.
3. Match costs to your trading volume. If you trade EUR/USD actively, the all-in cost gives a direct comparison where figures exist. For other brokers or instruments, request pricing for the specific account type.
4. Check the deposit requirement and funding route. Five of the seven have a $0 minimum deposit; Exness requires $200. More decisive for most Pakistani traders is whether your bank or card will process the payment and what the conversion costs.
5. Choose the platform you will actually use. If you rely on MetaTrader Expert Advisors, cTrader or TradingView, confirm the broker supports it. If you want foreign shares and futures alongside forex, a multi-asset broker fits better than a CFD specialist.
6. Decide on swap-free terms if needed. Request the Islamic account details and read the fees that replace swap.
7. Start small and test the withdrawal. Open the account, verify it fully, fund a small amount, trade on a demo or with minimal size, and make a small withdrawal to confirm the process works before you deposit more.

Red flags to avoid

Because Pakistan has no local licensing regime for online forex, unregulated operators target Pakistani traders with promises that licensed brokers cannot make. Warning signs include:

• Guaranteed or fixed monthly returns. Leveraged trading cannot guarantee returns. A promise of a fixed percentage per month is a sign of a scheme rather than a broker.
• Account managers who trade for you. Licensed brokers generally do not offer to trade a retail client’s account for them through a personal manager contacted on WhatsApp or Telegram.
• Payments to personal accounts. Deposits should go to accounts in the broker’s name. Requests to send money to an individual’s bank account or mobile wallet are a red flag.
• Pressure to deposit more to “unlock” a withdrawal. Fees or taxes demanded before a withdrawal can be released are a common feature of fraudulent operations.
• Licence numbers that do not match the regulator’s register. Clone firms copy the name and licence of a real broker. Check the website domain and contact details listed on the regulator’s register, not those on the site you were sent.

If a firm appears on an SECP warning list or on a foreign regulator’s warning list, do not deposit.