Dukascopy Bank vs FP Markets — which broker is better?

Pros

• Licensed by FINMA as both a bank and a securities firm — full Swiss banking supervision, capital requirements and audit obligations, not a CFD-broker permission
• esisuisse depositor protection up to CHF 100,000 per client on cash balances, which is five times the EUR 20,000 investor compensation most EU brokers offer
• SWFX Swiss FX Marketplace is a genuine ECN with visible depth, where EUR/USD spreads start from 0.1 pips and commission is charged separately and transparently
• JForex 4 is one of the deepest retail platforms available: roughly 270 indicators, a Java strategy API, tick-level historical data for backtesting and depth-of-market
• FIX API access for accounts above roughly USD 100,000, with the JForex Java API available at any account size — institutional connectivity offered at retail account sizes
• Volume commission ladder is fully published and improves on any of three criteria — net deposit, equity or 30-day traded volume — so it rewards capital as well as churn
• The banking side is real: multi-currency accounts, IBAN, cards and e-banking sit alongside the trading account under one Swiss licence
• USD 100 entry on the JForex ECN account, so the Swiss banking counterparty is not gated behind a six-figure balance

Cons

• Bank transfer withdrawals are priced per currency and rail — EUR 2.3 over SEPA up to EUR 20, USD 19 up to USD 35, and nominally much more in minor currencies such as HUF 5,500 or JPY 2,500 — and card withdrawals add EUR 1.5 plus 2.5%; cash movement is the single worst part of the tariff
• Cash conversions — exchanges, deposits, withdrawals, transfers — are charged at 0.05%–1.00% over spot depending on size, with smaller conversions at the punitive end; profits, losses and commissions outside the account's base currency are converted for a flat 0.5% fee at the Swiss bank (0.1% at the Latvian entity), so a multi-currency trader pays that charge repeatedly
• JForex 4 has a genuinely steep learning curve, and Dukascopy publishes little structured beginner education to soften it
• No exchange-listed options, no cleared futures and no real share ownership — everything outside spot FX is a CFD with Dukascopy as counterparty
• MT4 and MT5 accounts require USD 1,000 rather than the USD 100 that opens a JForex ECN account, and carry a much narrower instrument list
• Physical gold holdings are charged 1.5% per year and quarantined crypto assets CHF 2,000 every six months — unusual charges that are easy to miss in the tariff PDF

Pros

• Raw account at USD 3 per lot per side with EUR/USD measured at 0.1 pips and GBP/USD at 0.1 — competitive across the majors
• The widest platform lineup in its peer group: MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView, Iress Trader/ViewPoint, Iress Investor and WebTrader on one account
• Iress gives genuine direct market access with full depth on seven exchanges and published per-exchange commissions from 0.06% on the ASX
• No custody fee, and no account fee at all on MetaTrader or Iress Investor; the CySEC entity currently charges no dormant fee and the Australian terms list no inactivity fee
• Twelve base currencies including CHF, plus sub-accounts so you can hold USD, EUR and GBP ledgers separately and avoid conversion
• 24/7 multilingual support that aggregated user feedback consistently describes as quick, helpful and patient
• ASIC licence 286354 held since 2005 alongside CySEC 371/18 — a genuinely long operating record for a CFD broker
• Account opening takes 10–15 minutes and is usually approved the same day, from an AUD 100 minimum on MetaTrader

Cons

• No options of any kind — exchange-traded, OTC or CFD — so options traders need a second broker
• Investor compensation exists only for EEA clients under CySEC (EUR 20,000); ASIC, FSCA and Seychelles clients get none, and the international site is run by a Saint Lucia-registered company with no prudential supervision
• The Iress side carries costs MetaTrader clients never see: AUD 85 per month for Iress Trader/ViewPoint unless you trade enough, AUD 25 per month for ASX live data, and card deposit surcharges of 1.6%–3.18%
• Fixed income and commodities are token: two bond CFDs and twelve commodity CFDs, well behind competitors listing dozens
• Privately held with no public financials, no banking licence and no exchange listing, so the group's capital position cannot be independently verified
• Recurring public complaints through mid-2026 about withdrawal friction, profit disputes and opacity around account restrictions