Part of UBI Banca, one of Italy’s largest banking groups, IWBank is an online brokerage offering online and telephone stock trading in most major European markets and some other global ones. It provides services in several European languages, but seems to be relatively little used by non-Italian clients if the shortage of customer feedback is anything to go by. Commissions seem reasonable for some markets and rather high for others.
Although IW Bank operates separate sites under .co.uk, .fr, .de and other European domains, the firm does not have authorised subsidiaries in these countries and so all accounts fall under the Italian regulatory regime and the investor protection rules there.
This isn’t a problem – Italy is of course a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) and EEA rules are intended to establish minimum standards, enabling financial services to be “passported” across borders. But investors should always be aware when they are dealing with a passported institution, so that they know to which regulator they have recourse in the event that something goes wrong.
| Online trading | Belgium, France, Germany - Frankfurt, Germany - Stuttgart, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA |
| Telephone trading | Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Japan - Tokyo, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, USA OTCBB |
| Typical online | €5-€100 |
| Online details | Belgium, France, Netherlands 0.199% (min €15, max €25), Germany - Frankfurt 0.199% (min €5 max €18), Germany Stuttgart 0.19% (min €10), Italy €12.5, Spain 0.3% (min €100), Switzerland 0.125£ (min €15, max €50), UK SETS 0.125% (min €15 max €50), UK non-SETS 0.3% (min €100), USA €15 |
| Typical telephone | €15-€100 |
| Telephone details | Australia 0.7% (min €30), Austria 0.15% (min €50), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden 0.125% (min €15 max €50), Greece 1.5% (min €100), Ireland 0.3% (min €100), Japan 0.7% (min €30), Portugal 0.3% (min €100), USA OTCBB €25 |
| Account fees and inactivity fees | None |
| Custody charges for stocks | None |
| Dividend charges | None |
| Corporate action charges | None |
| Currency conversion charges | 0.1% over interbank rate |
| Hold cash in foreign currencies | No |
| Currencies allowed | EUR |
| Tax-advantaged accounts | None |
| Other products and services | Bonds, futures, FX, options |
| Minimum account size | None |
| Company location | Italy |
| Further information | Go to the IW Bank website |
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