As a rule, your securities and assets are kept safe with online brokers. This is ensured by a number of mechanisms that protect your assets from unauthorised access and in the event of insolvency of the bank or broker.
Especially with European brokers, security for the customer is a top priority. But other providers also offer high - sometimes even stricter - security concepts.
How safe your securities account and your securities actually are depends mainly on the following factors:
1. deposit protection
In case of insolvency of your broker, your deposits (not the securities themselves) are protected up to a certain amount and will be paid out to you.
In Europe, for example, there is a statutory deposit guarantee of EUR 100,000 per customer and per credit institution. This amount can be additionally increased by voluntary memberships in deposit protection funds.
2. type of securities
Securities are excluded from deposit protection because they are part of the special assets and are only held in custody by your bank.
Separate rules apply depending on the type of security: Securities such as shares, funds and ETFs are issued to you as your property in the event of insolvency. If the bank is nevertheless unable to surrender the securities, the statutory investor compensation of 90% of the deposit value (but no more than EUR 20,000) applies.
Certificates and other debt securities are also excluded from this, as they are not in your name and are therefore exposed to issuer risk. However, these worst-case scenarios are very unlikely!
3. supervisory authority
Whether online brokers are reputable can also be assessed on the basis of the competent supervisory authority. Each country has its own financial supervisory authority, which monitors the securities market with varying degrees of strictness and is the point of contact in dispute settlements. In Germany, for example, BaFin is responsible for ensuring compliance with the strict legal requirements.
Other well-known authorities from abroad are, for example, the FCA (Great Britain), CySec (Cyprus) or the SEC (USA).
The supervisory authority responsible for a broker like thaiexness20.com/mt4 is always the one in whose country its head office or branch office is located. Banks and brokers with several branches are sometimes regulated more than once.
4 Technical security
IT is also a decisive factor in securities account security, but is the most difficult of all to assess.
Actually all internet banks and brokers swear by a secure infrastructure of their online banking with their own stable servers, SSL encryption and additional mechanisms besides TAN/PIN procedures.
Therefore, reports on the experiences of active and former customers as well as newspaper reports on possible data leaks or system failures and their consequences are informative about the actual IT security.
5 Personal behaviour on the Internet
A serious appearance, perfect surveillance and the most secure technology do not protect you from your own misconduct. Therefore, pay attention to the following points:
- Regularly install security updates on the PC or smartphone.
- Regularly scan your PC or smartphone for malware and viruses.
- Only obtain software and apps directly from the broker or from the official app stores.
- Only store access data physically in a safe place (e.g. safe).
- Do not give access data to third parties
- Recognise and avoid phishing e-mails
