Equiti

Equiti Group traces its origins to 2008, when it was established in Amman, Jordan, under the leadership of founder and CEO Iskandar Najjar, initially as a Middle Eastern foreign-exchange brokerage before expanding into a full multi-asset operation. Over the following decade and a half the group built out a deliberately international structure, with operational hubs in Amman, London and Dubai, and today positions Dubai as the group's principal commercial centre. Equiti is privately held with no listed parent, and reports its regulated subsidiaries' accounts to each respective supervisor rather than to a public market. The group's defining characteristic is its breadth of regulatory footprint relative to its public profile: where many retail brokers concentrate on a single CySEC or FCA licence, Equiti operates separately authorised entities across the United Kingdom, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and Seychelles, alongside its founding Jordan Securities Commission permission. The product catalogue spans forex, spot metals, energy and index CFDs, share CFDs and a selection of further instruments, though the headline proposition has historically been forex and major-market CFDs rather than the very wide multi-asset ranges offered by IG or Saxo Bank. The group's strongest commercial gravity sits in the MENA region, where its UAE SCA-regulated entity and Arabic-language servicing give it a distinct advantage; the European and UK retail offering, while properly regulated, is a narrower slice of the overall business.

Equiti's regulatory framework is genuinely multi-tier and worth unpacking entity by entity, because the protections a client receives depend entirely on which subsidiary onboards them. Equiti Capital UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority under firm reference number 528328; it is important to note that this UK entity is directed at professional and eligible-counterparty clients rather than mainstream retail traders, so UK retail access in practice runs through the broader group rather than the FCA professional arm. Equiti Global Markets Ltd is regulated in Cyprus by CySEC under licence 415/22, operating under the EU MiFID II passport and serving as the European retail-servicing entity, with Investor Compensation Fund coverage up to EUR 20,000 per eligible client, mandatory negative balance protection and segregated client money. Equiti Securities Currencies Brokers LLC holds a UAE Securities and Commodities Authority Category One OTC and FX licence, number 20200000026, anchoring the group's regulated MENA business. Equiti's Seychelles entity is regulated by the Financial Services Authority under licence SDR077 and is the route through which higher-leverage, offshore accounts are offered to clients outside the EU and UK. The CySEC, FCA and UAE SCA permissions are tier-1 frameworks with meaningful capital, conduct and client-money requirements; the Seychelles FSA licence is a mid-tier offshore regime that does not carry the same compensation-scheme or negative-balance guarantees and should be understood as such by any client onboarded through it. The Jordan Securities Commission permission, the group's original licence, remains in place for its home market. This layered structure means a prospective client must check which entity their account agreement names, as the difference between the CySEC arm and the Seychelles arm is the difference between full ESMA-grade protection and an offshore framework with substantially lighter safeguards.

Pricing at Equiti is organised around an account ladder rather than a single schedule, and the cost a trader pays depends heavily on the tier they select. The Standard account is the spread-only entry tier, with no separate commission and EUR/USD spreads from approximately 1.0 pip, which translates to an all-in cost in the region of USD 10 per standard lot round-turn on the major pair during liquid sessions. That is uncompetitive against the raw-spread ECN tier offered by the cheaper end of the regulated market, where all-in costs sit closer to USD 6 to USD 7. The Premier account is the raw-spread tier, offering spreads from 0.0 pips on EUR/USD with a commission of roughly USD 7 round-turn per standard lot, which is in line with Pepperstone's Razor account, IC Markets' Raw account and FxPro's Raw+ tier, all of which sit at around USD 7 round-turn, and marginally above Tickmill's Raw account at USD 6. The Premier tier is therefore where Equiti becomes genuinely competitive on cost, but it typically carries a higher minimum funding requirement than the entry account, so it is aimed at traders running consistent volume rather than newcomers depositing the bare minimum. A Classic account also features in the group's ladder, sitting alongside the Standard and Premier tiers as a further spread-based option. Swap-free Islamic accounts are available across the suite, reflecting the group's MENA orientation, and are a meaningful draw for clients in markets where overnight interest is unacceptable. A trader running thirty standard lots a month on the Premier account would pay approximately USD 210 in commission plus minimal residual spread, broadly matching Pepperstone and IC Markets at the same volume; the same trader on the Standard account would pay materially more through the wider spread, which is the central pricing trade-off to understand before opening an Equiti account.

The platform line-up covers the two industry-standard MetaTrader terminals plus Equiti's own EQTrader. MetaTrader 4 is offered across desktop, web and mobile, with the full MQL4 Expert Advisor environment, the mature third-party indicator ecosystem and unrestricted hedging and scalping. MetaTrader 5 is available across the same form factors and adds the wider timeframe set, depth-of-market data, the integrated economic calendar, multi-currency strategy testing and the MQL5 algorithmic environment. EQTrader is the group's proprietary platform, delivered as a web terminal with a mobile-adapted application; it covers charting with technical indicators, order placement and management, real-time news and account administration, and is fully synchronised with the desktop and web terminals. EQTrader is a clean, accessible interface for clients who prefer not to install MetaTrader, but it is a lighter tool than the full MetaTrader experience and does not approach the depth of a professional platform. The most notable gaps, consistent with much of the mid-sized broker segment, are the absence of cTrader, the absence of TradingView integration and the lack of a native social or copy-trading platform of the kind offered by eToro or via cTrader's ecosystem at competing brokers. Expert Advisor execution is fully supported on MT4 and MT5. For the great majority of Equiti's forex and CFD clients the MT4/MT5 pairing is more than sufficient, but discretionary traders who have standardised on TradingView charts or who specifically want cTrader's Level II order book will find the offering incomplete.

For EU clients, the relevant entity is Equiti Global Markets Ltd under CySEC licence 415/22, and the protections that flow from that are the standard ESMA package. Retail leverage is capped at 30:1 on major currency pairs, 20:1 on non-major pairs and major indices, 10:1 on commodities other than gold (gold at 20:1), 5:1 on individual equity CFDs and 2:1 on any cryptocurrency CFDs offered. Negative balance protection is mandatory at the account level, so an EU retail client cannot lose more than the capital deposited regardless of how violently a market gaps. Client money is held in segregated accounts separate from the firm's operational funds, and the Investor Compensation Fund provides up to EUR 20,000 per eligible client in the event of the entity's failure. It is worth being precise here: these ESMA-grade protections apply to clients onboarded through the CySEC entity. Clients elsewhere in the world onboarded through the Seychelles FSA entity sit outside this framework, can access materially higher leverage and do not benefit from the EUR 20,000 ICF cap or the same negative-balance guarantee. Professional clients meeting two of the three ESMA criteria — a qualifying transaction history, a portfolio above EUR 500,000, or relevant industry experience — can elect professional categorisation and access leverage up to 500:1 while waiving certain retail protections, a step the regulated entity is required to flag clearly.

The account ladder runs from Standard through Premier, with a Classic tier alongside. The Standard account is the spread-only entry point with no commission and wider EUR/USD spreads from around 1.0 pip, suited to lower-volume or newer traders who prefer simplicity over the lowest headline cost. The Premier account is the raw-spread, commission-based tier with spreads from 0.0 pips and roughly USD 7 round-turn, and is the appropriate choice for any trader running consistent volume who wants the tightest pricing. The Classic account provides a further spread-based option within the structure. The briefed minimum deposit for entry into the premium proposition is USD 500, which is higher than entry-level rivals such as FXTM or Capital.com that admit clients with EUR 10 to EUR 20, though broadly in line with several established mid-tier brokers; it is worth noting that the group's public Standard-account pages advertise a lower entry figure for the basic tier, so prospective clients should confirm the current minimum for the specific entity and account they are opening. Swap-free variants are available across the ladder.

Withdrawals are processed without a broker-side fee across the supported methods, which include bank transfer, credit and debit cards (Visa and Mastercard), and the Skrill and Neteller e-wallets, alongside regional local-payment options where available. Equiti does not levy its own charge on deposits or withdrawals, though the underlying bank or e-wallet may apply its own fee, and currency conversion can apply where the funding currency differs from the account currency. Card and e-wallet withdrawals are generally the fastest rails, with bank-wire withdrawals settling over one to three business days depending on the correspondent banking chain. The funding menu and available rails vary by servicing entity, so the precise options a client sees depend on whether they are onboarded through the CySEC, UAE or Seychelles arm. Overall the withdrawal experience is straightforward, with the main caveat being that the available methods and processing characteristics are entity-dependent rather than uniform across the group.

Equiti suits two clear audiences. The first is MENA-based traders, for whom the UAE SCA-regulated entity, Arabic-language servicing and swap-free accounts make it one of the more credible regulated choices in the region. The second is cost-aware active traders globally who select the Premier account, where 0.0-pip raw spreads and roughly USD 7 round-turn commission put it on a par with Pepperstone, IC Markets and FxPro and only marginally behind Tickmill on the cheapest end. Against those raw-spread specialists Equiti is competitive on Premier pricing but offers a narrower platform set, lacking cTrader and TradingView. Against multi-asset giants such as IG or Saxo it offers far fewer instruments and a lighter research and education stack. The Standard account, with its wider spreads, is the weakest part of the proposition and is hard to recommend for anyone with regular volume. The decisive consideration for any prospective client is the entity question: onboarded through CySEC, this is a properly protected ESMA-grade broker; onboarded through Seychelles, it is an offshore proposition with higher leverage and lighter safeguards. The 8.0 overall score reflects strong multi-tier regulation and a genuinely competitive Premier tier, offset by a thinner EU/UK retail proposition, an uncompetitive Standard account and the absence of the cTrader and TradingView options that traders increasingly expect.