Is IC Markets a scam? ASIC licence and the real risks

Running IC Markets through the warning filter: it passes, and why

Every profile in this section is checked the same way. Can the licence be traced back to the source? IC Markets can, all three: ASIC, CySEC, SCB.

Does it promise a fixed return? No, the broker does not promise “10–30% a month” the way the scam models do. Does it solicit managed accounts? No, it does not take money to manage.

Is withdrawal held up with the excuse “deposit more before you can withdraw”? The withdrawal process is public. Is the legal entity shady or newly set up? It has operated since 2007, with a public Australian entity. Does it pay rewards down a downline like multi-level marketing? Only ordinary IB commission.

It passes all six questions. That is why IC Markets sits in our rankings and not on the warning list. But “passing the scam filter” is only the necessary condition.

What true ECN means for your account

What sets IC Markets apart from many familiar brokers in Vietnam, and is also the source of plenty of misunderstanding, is how orders are executed.

Instead of taking the other side of client orders itself, the broker passes your order to a group of liquidity providers and earns an intermediary fee. Liquidity is how easily you can buy or sell without the price jumping.

Three consequences you will see with your own eyes:

Very low spreads but a separate commission, about 3.5 USD per lot per side on the Raw Spread account. Someone used to “commission-free” brokers sees extra money deducted and assumes the broker is cheating. In fact it is a public fee structure, and the total cost is usually lower.

Spreads widen sharply when news is released, because prices come from the real market and are not “smoothed” by the broker. That is a feature of the model, not a fault.

Slippage happens in both directions: it can go against you, but it can also go in your favour. A broker that takes the other side of your orders usually slips only in the unfavourable direction.

Three hard truths Vietnamese clients need to swallow before depositing

First, you may not belong to the ASIC entity. IC Markets has several legal entities. Clients outside Australia/EU usually register under the SCB (Bahamas) entity to get higher leverage, and investor protection there is very different from ASIC.

Do not assume “the broker has ASIC” means your account is protected by ASIC. Read the entity named on the contract carefully when you register.

Second, there is no minimum deposit, but the advantage goes to people who trade a lot. IC Markets has no minimum deposit for the Raw Spread, cTrader and Standard accounts, so small capital is not turned away. Raw spreads and a fixed commission only turn into savings once your volume is large enough.

Third, it has no licence in Vietnam, like every international broker. You trade outside Vietnam's legal framework and carry the responsibility yourself.

Who should and should not open an account here

Reputation is one thing, fit is another. Many people disappointed with IC Markets were not let down by a weak broker. They chose the wrong broker for their needs:

In other words, IC Markets does not turn small accounts away at the door, but its advantage goes to people who trade a lot.

Four reasons people still shout “IC Markets is a scam”

The first group does not understand the commission structure. They see about 7 USD deducted per lot round trip and think they are being cheated, when it is a public fee and the total cost is usually lower than a “commission-free” account with wide spreads.

The second group gets stopped out when news comes out. ECN spreads widen sharply for a few seconds around major news and can hit a stop-loss or trigger a stop-out. This is a real risk of the model; the way to guard against it is not to hold high-leverage positions through news time.

The third group runs EAs at a loss and blames the broker. This comes up easily here because the broker does not ban EAs, but a losing EA comes from its strategy. The last group is scammed by an IB or a fake “mentor”: the culprit is the middleman, not the broker.

The register and the warning lists, updated 04/08/2026

The Cyprus entity, the company that signs contracts with EU clients, is on the register, verbatim:

“IC Markets (EU) Ltd. Licence Number: 362/18. Licence Date: 25/06/2018. Company Registration Number: 356877.”

Vietnamese clients do not sign with this entity. The approved domains are www.icmarkets.eu and www.ic.com/eu, not ic.com. The Australian entity is International Capital Markets Pty Ltd, ASIC AFSL 335692.

The FCA (UK) has several warning pages connected to the name IC Markets. The whole series targets clones, not the original broker. The domains the FCA names include icmarketpro.com, icm-market.com, i-cmarketz.com, ic-forexmarket.com and icmarketspartners.com. None of them is an official domain.

The FCA states clearly that these sites have no connection with the IC Markets group of companies, and that the scammers are impersonating the group's own name, registration number and licence number.

Money deposited with a clone is not protected by the Financial Ombudsman or the FSCS, because you never dealt with the authorised company.

There are so many clones that the regulator has had to issue several notices, a sign the brand is big enough to be worth impersonating.

But for Vietnamese people who find a broker through Facebook or Telegram ads, the bigger danger is not the real broker doing wrong. It is depositing into a clone by mistake, and the outcome is exactly the same as losing money to a scam.

How to protect yourself: type the domain by hand instead of clicking a link in an ad, and compare the domain you are on with the domain listed in the register.

The official IC Markets website is now ic.com.

The deciding question: which entity YOUR account belongs to

IC Markets publishes a licence stack of ASIC · CySEC · SCB. But a licence is attached to a legal entity, not to a brand.

Vietnamese clients are usually not accepted into the entity holding ASIC or CySEC, because those regulators protect only residents of their own region. In practice you usually sign with the SCB Bahamas entity, which has no investor compensation fund.

For high-volume traders, this figure deserves careful thought: the Cyprus entity has a compensation fund (ICF up to €20,000), the Bahamas entity does not.

If your regular balance is well above that, the excess is not protected at any entity. That is a practical reason not to keep idle money in the account.

How to check in 2 minutes, today rather than after something goes wrong: open your account-opening confirmation email or the client area, and find the entity name in the terms (in the form “International Capital Markets Pty Ltd” or a Bahamas/Cyprus entity).

Then search that exact name on ASIC Connect, the regulator's own search page, not on the broker's website. If it shows up, you belong to the Australian entity; if not, you do not.

The result decides whose door you knock on, because at home there is no door: the State Bank of Vietnam has not licensed any forex broker in Vietnam (VnExpress, 07/05/2025). If you belong to the Australian entity, you still have AFCA to complain to; if not, you only have the broker itself.

Before depositing, the rule does not change: type the domain by hand, trace the licence to the source, check the entity on your own contract, and deposit a small test amount and make one test withdrawal before depositing a large amount.

Spotted something inaccurate? Tell us and we will check it and publish a correction.