FBS Forex Review

Founded in 2009, FBS is an online forex broker that has quickly gained momentum and maintains a sterling reputation amongst its traders, achieving a steady rate of the new membership of 10,000 daily, even 12 years later. Forex isn’t the only market that FBS provides for its membership of over 17 million traders, as CFDs, stocks, and more are also tradeable. For its international clients (IFSC and FCSA regulations) leverage of up to 1:3000 is available, while for EU and the UK clients (CySEC regulation), there is leverage of up to 1:500. For Australian clients (ASIC regulation), leverage is up to 1:30. There are no commissions accompanying the majority of instruments and accounts.
 

 

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Account Types

FBS extends its limitations to trading accounts where it offers two types, a Standard Account and a Cent Account. The main difference between both is the minimum deposit which starts at $/€10 for Cent Accounts and at $/€100. The minimum spread in both is a floating one which starts at 1.0 pip and the maximum leverage is 1:30. The Cent Account also comes with a maximum order volume of 5 standard lots (1 standard lot is equal to 100,000 units) where the Standard Account sees this limit increased to 500 standard lots. The maximum amount of open/pending positions is set at 200 with a starting execution speed of 0.3 seconds.

The Cent Account is basically an entry level account for new Forex traders to get started with micro deposits and best suitable to create and test new strategies, but fairly irrelevant as the Standard Account has a very small minimum deposit requirement. FBS doesn’t offer special trading conditions to traders with higher balances or more frequent trading activity, a feature which is another unfortunate miss for this Forex broker.

Trading Platforms

FBS extends its limitation to just the MT4 Trading Platform for Windows, Apple macOS, Android, Apple iOS and FBS WebTrader. While MT4 remains the most used trading platform for Forex traders, FBS makes no effort to offer traders something which is not included with the standard operating license for the MT4 Trading Platform. Many Forex brokers don’t even pay for the full license and can obtain their trading platform under a White Label partnership through another Forex broker at a fraction of the cost.

Popular choices, especially for new traders, such as social trading or copy trading remain absent as FBS once again sticks to its minimalistic approach and offer the bare minimum in order to operate as a Forex broker. Features listed are part of the MT4 Trading Platform and should not be credited to what FBS offers.

Fees, Costs & Spreads

• No commission on trades.
• Spreads as low as -1 pip, depending on account type and market conditions.

Deposits & Withdrawals

FBS clients can make deposits with six major payment processors and many local money exchangers. Deposits by credit card, Neteller, Skrill, and Bitwallet have no fees. Deposits by SticPay and Perfect Money come with a small fee, usually no more than 2.5%.

Withdrawals are processed within 48 hours, usually within the first hour, but may take 5 to 7 days to appear in client accounts, depending on the method. Fees vary by type. Credit Card withdrawals pay only $1 while other methods pay a percent that runs from 0.5% to 3.0%

FBS Promotions and Bonuses

FBS is a market leader when it comes to promotions. The company offers a wide variety of promotions, including contests, loyalty programs, and bonuses.

• Level Up – This bonus gives free $70 on your web FBS Personal Area account and doubles this amount in FBS Personal Area app. Traders need to do is to open a Level Up Bonus account, confirm their email, connect your Facebook page, and, of course, start trading. Bonus can be activated via one Facebook account only once.
• Loyalty Program – Clients earn points with their trading volume. Points can be redeemed for prizes, including iPhones, MacBooks and even a car.
• Cashback – Clients can choose a Cash Back option and receive up to $15 back per lot traded.

Regulations & Licenses

FBS is regulated by several financial bodies:

FBS Markets Inc. IFSC, license IFSC/60/230/TS/18
FSCA (South Africa), license 50885
CySEC (the EU and UK.), license 331/17
ASIC (Australia), license ASIC 426359

Deposits and Withdrawals

When it comes to deposit and withdrawal options, once again FBS sticks to the basics. Forex traders have the choice of credit cards, bank wires and Skrill or Neteller which are both regulated in the EU. All deposit fees are waived which is standard industry practice and the deposit time is listed as instant with the exception of wire transfers.

Withdrawal options are the same as deposit options and Forex traders are required to request a withdrawal with the same method the deposit was conducted. This is also common practice in the Forex market. The positive for FBS is that they also waive all withdrawal fees, but Forex traders may still face charged by the payment processor. Withdrawal requests for credit cards are handled the same business day, bank wires within 48 hours and Skrill or Neteller requests between 15-20 minutes with a maximum of 48 hours.

 

FBS Short Review

 

Final Thoughts