Funding and access
City Index review
How to fund and withdraw with City Index, and what it costs to trade.
City Index sits below the standard we would recommend without reservation. Regulated by FCA (446717); ASIC (AFSL 345646); MAS and other StoneX group regulators, offering City Index Web Trader, City Index Mobile App, MetaTrader 4, TradingView. What follows is drawn from the broker's own published material and covers the things that decide the account you end up with: who oversees them, what trading actually costs, and where the compromises sit.
Our rating
One rating, identical across our sites - only the way it is shown changes. It averages six assessments: regulation, trading costs, platforms, markets, support and education.
What it costs to trade
- Spread from
- 0.5 pips
- EUR/USD spread
- Approx. 0.7 pips
- GBP/USD spread
- Approx. 1.1 pips
- Commission
- $0 on forex
- All-in cost, EUR/USD
- Approx. 0.7 pips
- Spread type
- Variable
- Overnight swap
- Both: overnight financing may be charged or credited
- Inactivity fee
- £12 per month after 12 months of inactivity
- Deposit fee
- None internally
- Withdrawal fee
- Generally none internally
- Currency conversion
- 0.5% on applicable realised P&L/charges
Spreads from 0.5 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.
Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.
City Index lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.
Markets and execution
- Markets
- Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Interest Rates, Options
- Currency pairs
- 80+
- Total instruments
- 13,500+
- Crypto CFDs
- Jurisdiction-dependent; unavailable to UK retail clients
- Maximum leverage
- 1:30 UK/Australian retail forex majors; higher for eligible professionals
- Execution model
- Market maker / principal
- Execution speed
- Approx. 0.02 seconds
- Order types
- Market, limit, stop, guaranteed stop-loss, trailing stop, OCO and platform-specific orders
- Servers
- Institutional global StoneX infrastructure
Leverage is capped at 1:30 UK/Australian retail forex majors; higher for eligible professionals, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.
City Index covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, bonds, interest rates, options. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.
Funding options: debit card, credit card where permitted, bank transfer, paypal and jurisdiction-specific methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.
Platforms and tools
- Platforms
- City Index Web Trader, City Index Mobile App, MetaTrader 4, TradingView
- Own platform
- Yes
- Mobile app
- Proprietary and MT4
- Browser trading
- Yes
- Automated trading
- Yes, MT4
- Copy trading
- No conventional integrated copy-trading service
- Indicators
- 80+ on proprietary platform; extensive TradingView/MT4 libraries
- Third-party tools
- TradingView, MetaTrader 4, Performance Analytics
- API access
- Yes, availability/entity dependent
MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.
TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.
Regulation and safety
- Regulated by
- FCA (446717); ASIC (AFSL 345646); MAS and other StoneX group regulators
- Regulator tier
- Tier 1
- Register entry
- FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 446717
- Client money segregated
- Yes
- Held at
- Top-tier regulated banks
- Negative balance protection
- Yes for eligible retail clients
- Compensation scheme
- FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; jurisdiction-dependent elsewhere
- Audited by
- Deloitte & Touche LLP at StoneX Group level
- Not available to
- United States for retail City Index offering and jurisdictions where services cannot legally be provided
City Index holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA and MAS. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.
ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.
The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore applies some of the tightest conduct requirements in the region, and fewer firms hold its licence.
Accounts
- Minimum deposit
- $0
- Account types
- Standard, MT4, Spread Betting, CFD, Professional, Corporate, Demo
- Account currencies
- GBP, USD, EUR, AUD and entity-dependent currencies
- Islamic account
- No
- Demo account
- Yes
- Professional account
- Yes
- Minimum trade size
- From 0.01 lots on applicable forex platforms
- Time to open
- Usually minutes, subject to verification
Deposits and withdrawals
- Deposit methods
- Debit card, credit card where permitted, bank transfer, PayPal and jurisdiction-specific methods
- Withdrawal methods
- Cards, bank transfer, PayPal where supported
- Deposit time
- Cards/PayPal generally instant; bank transfers can take 1-3 business days
- Withdrawal time
- Typically 1-3 business days after processing
- Minimum withdrawal
- £100 or remaining account balance in UK
- Local payment methods
- Local bank transfer and region-specific methods
Support and education
- Support hours
- 24/5
- Contact channels
- Live chat, phone, email, Help & Support centre
- Languages
- Multilingual/entity-dependent
- Telephone
- +44 20 3194 1801, UK
- support@cityindex.co.uk
- Live chat response
- Typically within minutes
- Education
- Extensive: Trading Academy, courses, guides, webinars and platform tutorials
- Research
- Extensive: market news, technical/fundamental analysis, Trading Central and analyst commentary
The company behind the brand
- Legal entity
- StoneX Financial Ltd
- Company number
- 05616586
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom
- Founded
- 1983
- Publicly listed
- Parent company is publicly listed, NASDAQ: SNEX
- Parent company
- StoneX Group Inc.
- Employees
- 4,000+ group-wide
- Also trades as
- City Index