FX trading is viewed as an attractive business, not only by retail traders and brokers but also by these major banks who start to offer their own trading service for retail clients.

Nowadays, the retail forex trading market has experienced significant changes in the form of regulation enhancement. It has come in the wake of increased market competition.

Stringent regulations forced many small brokerages into closure as their business models were no longer profitable. On the other hand, the unexpected beneficiaries of these developments are established high-street banks that have seized a ripe opportunity to extend their array of financial offerings.

In the place of small brokers pushed from the competition, a far more limited number of high street banks were in a position to pick up their market shares.

Here are the 5 major banks that have opened retail FX trading services to their clients:

  1. ADS Securities
  2. Santander
  3. Societe Generale
  4. Barclays
  5. Saxo Bank

Each bank has different methods and advantages to offer. Find out everything about it below.

 

1. ADS Securities

The major Middle East capital markets and investment bank offers FX, bullion, and CFDs trading under the subsidiary of ADS Prime. The brand offers retail trading services with multiple liquidity providers.

Using the widely popular MT4 platform that is also accessible by mobile phone, ADS Securities intends to reach a wide audience. They provide high leverage of up to 400:1, and the trading condition makes it possible for clients to develop their own trading robot (EA) should they be interested in automated trading.

ADSS | Specifications | Review | Testimonials (1) | News (6) | Articles (2)
Review Start Trading
Website
www.adss.com
Established
2010
Leverage
1:500
Min Deposit
$200
Regulation
FCA, SFC (Hong Kong), Department of Economic Development (Dubai)
Key Features Extensive Review
Bonuses
PAMM
Segregated accounts
VPS
MAM
Free education
Skrill
Wire transfer

ADSS is a legal forex and CFD broker because it is regulated in 3 countries: Department of Economic Development (Dubai) 1190047, FCA (UK) 577453 and SFC (Hong Kong) AXC847. Choosing a broker that is regulated by a reputable regulatory body is of utmost importance, as its regulated status helps ensure the trust and competence of the company.

Established in 2011 in Abu Dhabi, ADSS is a leading international broker in the UAE region. As one of the largest and most respected online brokers in the world, ADSS accepts clients from various regions and accepts trading accounts in multiple currencies.

The company is among the best in terms of reputation and reliability, as evidenced by the various awards that ADSS has won. Last year, ADSS won 3 main categories at the 2021 Global Forex Awards, namely Best Forex Trading Innovation – Global, Best Forex Trading Platform - Middle East, and Trusted Forex Broker - Middle East.

ADSS offers its clients a high-quality trading platform, MetaTrader 4 which is very popular among traders. The platform is capable of providing clients with 1-click trading solutions and includes customization for market depth analysis.

Plus, ADSS keeps things simple by offering only three types of live accounts: Spread Betting, Standard, and ECN. All three accounts can be opened by simply depositing $200 using a variety of payment options, including credit card, wire transfer, Skrill, debit card, and more.

In terms of trading instruments, ADSS is one of the best because it offers clients a variety of financial assets in the form of 61 forex pairs, 9 commodities, 28 indices, 4 bonds, 4 cryptocurrencies, and hundreds of stock CFDs, including shares of companies in Saudi Arabia.

Unfortunately, ADSS does not offer any bonuses to their traders. However, clients can participate in partnership programs such as referring to a friend, Introducing Broker, and Fund Manager.

ADSS also provides multilingual support to their clients 24 hours a day, 5 days a week via live chat, email, or their global phone hotline.

 

2. Santander

Santander offers distribution and market-making activities for medium to large corporations and institutional private clients. Santander has over 125,000 foreign-exchange customers, including 30,000 SMEs. Approximately a million transactions, mainly in GBP and USD, are made by its retail customers each year.

Santander can assist customers at branches and the bank's FX brokers offer the service of expert management with straightforward, comprehensive digital solutions to satisfy customers' needs. About 64% of customers are digital-based, and the number of clients accessing the bank's app has reached 5 million.

Also, Santander provides its services in its core geographical areas of Europe and Latin America. This company offers up to 200 currency pairs with specialized G10 and LatAm currencies. This company has a broad product variety in spot, FX swaps, forwards, and options.

See also: Lowest Spread Forex Brokers for GBP/USD

 

3. Societe Generale

Societe Generale offers FX trading with comprehensive global coverage and trading capabilities in a broad range of currencies in FX spot, futures, forwards, options, and swaps with competitive spreads. This company has a strong European franchise with a focus on emerging markets.

In Western Europe, this company has a large footprint and is a top 10 player in G10 currencies. In addition, this company offers a number of global emerging currencies like CEE 5 currencies.

 

4. Barclays

Barclays has an international banking infrastructure and can provide a forex service that allows clients to trade up to 60 currency pairs. This company is looking into further pursuing retail forex trading.

According to Greenwich Associates, an independent research company, Barclays is a leading bank in the forex market in terms of market share. This company has a global FX market share of 10.5%, followed by Deutsche and Citi with shares of 9.8 and 9.3% respectively.

 

5. Saxo Bank

Saxo Bank has a license in six tier-1 jurisdictions, indicating its merits as a safe broker to trade CFDs and forex. Its clients can trade in spot, forwards, and options over 100 currency pairs. In order to protect clients from volatility, this company has a platform that can trigger on the opposite side of the spread.

Saxo Bank | Specifications | Review | Testimonials (6) | News (44) | Articles (1) | Bonus (1)

 

What's in It for the Investment Banks?

According to Greenwich Associates, an independent research company, forex retail trading is viewed as an attractive business because of the trade-off between increasingly onerous capital reserve requirements that lowers profit margins in investment banking and capital markets business. And so, the opportunity attracts investment banks to build their own platforms for retail offerings.

In the 21st century, the banking industry has many challenges. It forced banks to start looking beyond their established horizons. A combination of online services, non-banking financial apps, and low-interest rates have forced banks to cut their fees while profit margins dropped.

The solution found by many established banks has been a move into their industry adjacents, and in many cases that has entailed a move into retail forex trading. Already in possession of financial accounts that use almost identical infrastructure, the jump across represents a logical move.

They can generate revenue from commissions on deposits while offering higher returns than the traditional savings accounts to their existing clients.

 

Similar to retail tradings from major banks, these forex brokers allow advanced trading conditions and specifications for experienced traders. If you are looking for the perfect environment to trade without any conditional boundaries, hit the list of forex brokers for professional traders.