Saxo review: Danish bank, US stock fees and custody costs

Overview

Saxo is a Danish online investment and trading group, founded in Copenhagen in 1992 and headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark. Its international website relates to the parent company, Saxo Bank A/S, which holds a Danish banking licence (licence no. 1149) and is supervised by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. We confirmed the company, its number 1149 and its registration as a bank in the Danish FSA’s own register. All facts in this review were checked on 18 October 2026.

Which company you deal with

Every Saxo site says that client agreements are made with the Saxo company that covers your country of residence. The UAE site is run by the Dubai representative office of Saxo Bank A/S, which the Central Bank of the UAE licenses only for representative-office activities; the site says its investment services and accounts are provided by Saxo Bank A/S itself. For Africa and Latin America we found no page naming the company, so check your account agreement.

Saxo’s other companies serve their own countries: Saxo Capital Markets UK Ltd (FCA 551422), Saxo Capital Markets Pte Ltd in Singapore (MAS), Saxo Bank (Switzerland) Ltd. (FINMA), Saxo Bank Securities Ltd. in Japan (Kanto Local Finance Bureau, No. 239) and Saxo SIM S.p.A. in Italy (CONSOB).

Products and markets

Both platforms, SaxoInvestor and SaxoTrader, list stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds and options, as well as CFDs, forex, futures and commodities; Saxo says availability varies by country. The stock price list covers the main US exchanges (NASDAQ, NYSE), Toronto, London, Xetra, Euronext, SIX Swiss Exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore and others. We found no exchange from the Middle East, Nigeria, Egypt or Latin America in it.

Costs

Saxo has three account tiers. Classic needs no minimum funding. Platinum and VIP are reached with reward points from trading or with initial funding of EUR 200,000 and EUR 1,000,000, and they lower the prices.

• US stocks (Classic): 0.08% of the order, minimum USD 1, on NASDAQ and NYSE (Platinum 0.05%, VIP 0.03%). Saxo says the prices are indicative and vary by country of residence.
• Johannesburg Stock Exchange (Classic): 0.3% of the order, minimum ZAR 50.
• Currency conversion: up to 0.25% on the international site; the UAE site says up to 0.50%.
• Custody: for residents of countries without their own rate, 0% when securities lending is enabled, otherwise 0.15% on Classic. The UAE site charges 0.15% a year on Classic, worked out daily and charged monthly.
• No fees for opening or maintaining the account, for inactivity, or for deposits and withdrawals.

Protection

Saxo Bank A/S is a member of the Danish Depositor and Investor Guarantee Scheme. The Danish Guarantee Fund covers cash deposits up to EUR 100,000 per depositor if Saxo fails. If Saxo cannot return your stocks or bonds, the fund covers losses up to EUR 20,000. The scheme covers deposits of clients of Saxo Bank A/S and of its UAE, Czech, French, Belgian and Dutch branches; clients of the subsidiaries in Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Japan and Singapore are referred to their local sites.

Deposits and withdrawals

You can fund the account by bank transfer or by credit or debit card (Quick payment only in Denmark). Your first deposit must come from a bank account in your name in your country of residence. Withdrawals go only to bank accounts verified as yours; card withdrawals are not offered. Saxo charges nothing for deposits or withdrawals, but other banks along the way may, and withdrawals are usually processed the same day. No mobile money or local payment systems are named.

What we could not confirm

• Which Saxo company onboards residents of Africa and Latin America.
• The list of the group’s licences, which Saxo publishes as a PDF that its robots.txt does not let us read.
• Fractional shares and Islamic accounts: not mentioned on the pages we read.
• The licences of the UK, Singapore, Swiss, Japanese and Italian companies in the regulators’ own registers (we could not open them).

We have not tested this platform with our own account yet; this review will be updated when we do.