FCA authorised firm

Swissquote Ltd (Swissquote) is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The FCA has strict rules (FCA Rules) on the way we hold your money and assets and requires us to keep them separate from our own money and assets. The FCA Rules also have strict requirements for record-keeping, reconciliations, the provision of statements as well as annual reporting by auditors.

How we will hold your client money

Your money will be held in a trading account within a Swissquote segregated client account at one or more banks approved by us. Your money will be held separately from our own funds in accordance with the FCA Rules. Unless otherwise agreed, if you are a retail or elective professional client your money will be pooled with the money of other clients in a general client omnibus account. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, client money could not be used to settle any of our liabilities and your share of the segregated money would be returned to you (less any applicable costs payable to any insolvency administrator).

We will not pay interest to you on any of your money that we hold.

However, if you are a professional client or eligible counterparty, your money and assets are transferred to and held by us for the purpose of securing or otherwise covering your present, future, actual, contingent or prospective obligations to us (Title Transfer Collateral Arrangement) and will not be treated as client money or client assets under the FCA Rules. If you are a professional client or eligible counterparty you will be given a written agreement setting out the terms relating to Title Transfer Collateral Arrangements.

Investor Compensation

We are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). If we are unable to meet our liabilities in respect of investment business (or there is any shortfalls in the event of our insolvency), if you make a valid claim you may be entitled to redress from the FSCS in respect of the investments that we arrange. This depends on the type of business and circumstances of the claim. Most types of investment business are covered for 100% of the first £85,000 per person. Further information is available from us or from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, PO Box 300, Mitcheldean GL17 1DY or on their website at www.fscs.org.uk. This scheme is not normally available to professional clients.

Bank Arrangements

We are required by the FCA Rules to carry out comprehensive due diligence on and periodically review the banks with whom we place client money.

In the unlikely event that the bank which holds your money becomes insolvent, then you would become a general creditor of the bank and we will not be responsible for their insolvency or their related acts or omissions. Resulting losses would be shared by you with other clients that have money with the insolvent bank. The amounts covered by the FSCS are calculated per person, per institution and are subject to other balances you may hold with the bank (i.e. if you have money at a particular insolvent bank through your account with us and you have your own direct account at that bank, you will only be covered up to £85,000 in total). However, we may hold your money with banks located outside the United Kingdom. The legal and regulatory regime applying to any such bank will be different from that of the United Kingdom and in the event of their insolvency or any other equivalent failure, your money will be treated differently than they would in the United Kingdom (for example, the UK FSCS scheme would not apply, although there may be a local equivalent).

If you require any further information please contact info@swissquote.co.uk