iOCBC Review – 35 Years Of Financial Expertise

Established in 1986, the OCBC Group enjoys the reputation of a respected and reliable financial services provider in Singapore. 

The iOCBC broker is a part of this larger business group and has a history of a licensed securities, derivatives, leveraged foreign exchange and futures trading provider. Let’s explore their full offer further in this iOCBC review.

Legal Information

Founded in 1986, OCBC Securities is a wholly owned subsidiary of OCBC Bank, a trusted Singaporean financial service provider. The brokerage itself, OCBC SECURITIES PRIVATE LIMITED is supervised and authorized by MAS.

The long standing track record and a clean legal status vouch for the company’s quality of service in their nation. Singapore is known for solid financial regulation, yet they still fall short of some areas like the EEA for example.

For a securities dealer working at an international level a Tier-1 license is preferred, like the one owned by Main Group FX.

Site History

While the company boasts over 35 years in securities and derivatives brokering, the website is quite a bit younger. It was only launched in 1999, which we may see browsing the WhoIs database.

The firm is available through various social networks as well, boasting official Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube profiles. They may also be found on Lusha, Yelp and Crunchbase as well.

Such a long standing service provider would have an outstanding reputation with their customers, yet we couldn’t find any on popular platforms like TrustPilot, which is peculiar to say the least.

iOCBC Trading Platform Functionality

There’s several variations of the firm’s proprietary software, developed and adjusted for the most efficient trading on different markets:

• iOCBC Trading Platform for securities trading
• iOCBCfx Trading Platform for foreign currency exchange 
• iOCBCfx Pro Trading Platform 
• Futures Trading Platform

The software itself possesses advanced analytical options and you have the freedom to customize the charts to adjust the layout to your preference. In addition, live market tracking tools help users stay up to date with the latest events and price changes. 

However, the absence of any of the industry’s most advanced and popular software is still the biggest downside of the whole offer. 

Not so Popular iOCBC Mobile App

The proprietary platform is available for Android users to download for free on Google Play. With just a bit over 10 thousand downloads it can’t exactly be described as an overly popular solution for trading on the go. 

App Store also offers the possibility to download the software but it doesn’t seem like an excessively favored product on that online store, either. 

iOCBC Trading Accounts For Asset Types

Several packages available for purchasing are designed to facilitate the access to markets and trading specific instrument groups. Based on this criteria the bundles are specified as following:

• Basic Trading (Cash) Account – for trading in Singapore and foreign markets – US$1000
• Share Financing Account – pledging your cash or securities for bigger exposure on purchasing shares – US$5,000
• Share Borrowing Account – adjusted for short selling and hedging, while based on borrowing shares – US$5,000
• Leveraged FX Account – 40 currency pairs available for buying and selling across all devices – US$1,000 for local residents, US$5,000 for foreigners and US$100,000 for corporates. 
• Leveraged Futures Account – specifically designed for futures and options trading – US$10,000 for Singaporeans and Singapore PRs, US$20,000 for non-Singaporeans and US$30,000 for Corporate

Demo Available Upon Request

While there’s a possibility to test the trading environment and software. The only way to attain a trial account, however, is if your request is approved. In that case, you get a month of risk-free trading with a virtual margin of US$100,000.

Trading Costs And Margin

Our benchmark regarding costs will be the Basic account, with the minimum commission of US$25 for online trading and US$40 for broker assisted trading. 

Depending on the contract value, clients can expect discounts on these commissions. These range from 0.275% and 0.50% for online and broker assisted respectively, to 0.18% / 0.25%.

There is a difference in trading leverage and required margin as well, this time depending on the selected trading instruments. 

For instance, Futures and Options may be traded up to 1:20 with 5% margin. Trading Forex, clients can expect a leverage up to 1:50 with the required margin ranging from 2% to 8.5%.

Various Promotions

The brokerage uses promotions to incentivise their clients. These include various commission rebates for OCBC Cardmembers, lowered share financing rates and commission rebates for new traders.

One of the recent promotions offered a fee waiver paired with a subscription with a London Live Prices news outlet, which is a good way to keep informed while reducing your trading costs at the same time.

Provided Education Materials

The company offers various education materials, divided into several major courses. The most important one, basic education course, consists of 9 key lessons which include good quality webinars.

Other topics are covered as well, including supplementary retirement scheme planning and share financing-based flexibility improvements. In addition, you will see regular seminars organized by the firm, as well as access to news updates and economic reports.

The provided education is of good enough quality to bring even the novice up to speed on the newest trading strategies, which is not something you can say about the way Aventigo runs things, unfortunately.

Limited Payment Options

In comparison to most other regulated brokers, this trading portal doesn’t offer a wide variety of channels for monetary transactions. If anything, there’s Telegraphic Transfer and cheques, but these fall under strict jurisdictional limitations. 

While most well-regulated and internationally acclaimed brokerage powerhouses support various E-wallets, credit cards and crypto payments, the same couldn’t be said about this Forex dealer. More popular options like cards and a range of online payment services are not available. 

Consider Funded Trading! 

Stepping into risky investments with less popular Forex brokers always brings a dose of concern, stress and potential loss. Why then expose yourself to worry if there’s far safer options than that?!

With our funded trading program, you can reach out to our proprietary firm that funds talented traders with up to $180,000! You never have to sweat over your own capital again when there’s a reputable firm behind you to finance your trading endeavors!

FAQ Section