Client money
At Trading 212, we handle all client funds (money held on behalf of clients) in accordance with the regulations set out by the FCA’s Client Assets Sourcebook (‘CASS’, Chapter 7). This means that we pool our clients’ funds into a separate bank account, called ‘client money bank account’, which is completely separate from our own funds. We want to stress that we do not use any of our clients' funds for our own hedging or margin trading.
By keeping client funds separate from our own, in the unlikely event that Trading 212 were to become insolvent, your funds would still be accessible to you. We also take steps to reduce the risk of bank insolvency by holding client money in multiple major EU/UK banks (including JP Morgan and Barclays) and we regularly review their financial stability.
Client assets
Client assets are assets such as shares and funds we hold on behalf of clients. At Trading 212, we hold client assets in accordance with the FCA’s CASS rules (Chapter 6). We pool clients’ assets together and hold them in segregated accounts with a custodian, completely separate from Trading 212’s own assets. This helps ensure that our clients’ assets are protected and that they can be easily identified and distinguished from our own.
We work with Interactive Brokers, one of the largest brokers in the world, to help safeguard your assets. Our relationship with Interactive Brokers is governed by custody agreements that meet the CASS rules. We conduct regular reviews on them to ensure compliance with CASS rules. You can learn more about where and how your shares are held here.
Protection schemes
As a regulated investment firm in the UK, Trading 212 is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The FSCS is the UK’s compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms.
This means that in the unlikely event Trading 212, Interactive Brokers or the bank holding your client funds were to go into liquidation, and if there was a failure to safeguard your assets, the value of your client funds and client assets held with Trading 212 is protected by the FSCS up to a maximum of £85,000. This means that your client assets and funds up to that limit will be returned to you, minus the administrators’ costs in handling these. You can learn more about how the FSCS operates here.
