Trading forex (currencies) in international markets is popular among residents in Canada. Before any fx broker in Canada can accept forex and CFD traders as clients, they must become authorised by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), which is the financial regulatory body in Canada. IIROC's website is iiroc.ca. We recommend Canadian residents follow IIROC on Twitter, @IIROCinfo and @FINTRAC_Canada.
IIROC is a national self-regulatory organization (SRO) that was established as a non-profit corporation on June 1st, 2008 as part of the consolidation of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA) and the Maket Regulation Services Inc. (RS). IIROC is recognized by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) which includes all Canadian provinces including the following regulatorty bodies in Canada:
- British Columbia Securities Commission
- Alberta Securities Commission
- Saskatchewan Financial Services Commission
- Manitoba Securities Commission
- Ontario Securities Commission
- Autorité des marchés financiers
- New Brunswick Securities Commission
- Nova Scotia Securities Commission
- Prince Edward Island
- Newfoundland Securities Commission
For a historical breakdown, here's a link to IIROC's webpage on Wikipedia.
Best CA Forex Brokers List
To find the best forex broker regulated in Canada, we created a list of all IIROC member brokers, then ranked brokers by both trustworthiness, as well as their Overall ranking from the ForexBrokers.com 2018 Review. The result is our top forex brokers list for Canada.
| IIROC Authorised (Canada) | Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | Minimum Initial Deposit | Trust Score | Overall | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FOREX.com | Yes | 1.30 | $250.00 | 92 | |
| TD Ameritrade | Yes | N/A | $0.00 | 92 | |
| Interactive Brokers | Yes | N/A | $0 | 91 | |
| CMC Markets | Yes | 0.772 | $0.00 | 90 | |
| OANDA | Yes | 1.40 | $0.00 | 90 | |
| FXCM | Yes | 1.30 | $0.00 | 80 |
How to Verify IIROC Regulation
To identify if a forex broker is regulated as Dealer Member by IIROC, the first step is to identify the registered name from the disclosure text at the bottom of the broker's homepage. For example, here's the key disclosure text from OANDA's website:
OANDA (Canada) Corporation ULC is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), which includes IIROC's online advisor check database (IIROC AdvisorReport), and customer accounts are protected by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund within specified limits.
Next, look up the firm name on the Dealer Member section or AdvisorReport module of the IIROC website. Here is the official page for OANDA and results are also available on the CSA's website website which shows each province that the broker can operate in Canada.
In addition, brokers that are registered as a Money Service Business (MSB) can be validated on the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Canada (FINTRAC) website. For example, here's the registration for KVB Kunlun.
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