MiFID
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MiFID is the EU rulebook every European broker operates under, and the source of the leverage caps and protections you see quoted. The brokers below operate under it.
Brokers regulated by MiFID
EXNESSRead review- Low spreads
- Very fast trade execution
Saxo BankRead review- Wide range of tradable instruments
- Strong regulatory compliance and security measures
Admiral MarketsRead review- Low spreads and reliable trading conditions
- Daily market analysis and quality forecasts
FxProRead review- Withdrawals are processed quickly
- Deposits are insured
SberbankRead review- Wide range of trading instruments, including stocks and indices, via eToro's platform
- Copy-trading tools let you mirror other traders' positions
FXFlatRead review- Based in France
- Up to €500,000 guaranteed on deposits
Your triomarketsRead review- Wide range of tradable instruments
- Fully regulated, pure STP broker
Scandinavian Capital MarketsRead review- Regulated ECN broker (Finansinspektionen, Sweden)
- Choice of cTrader, Currenex, and MetaTrader 4 platforms
MiFID is not a regulator. It is the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive — the European Union's rulebook for investment services — and understanding it explains most of what a European broker's regulatory page says.
What MiFID does
The current framework, MiFID II with its accompanying regulation MiFIR, has applied since January 2018. It sets authorisation requirements, conduct standards, client classification, best execution obligations, product governance rules and transaction reporting for investment firms across the European Economic Area.
Its most consequential feature for a trader is passporting: a firm authorised in any EEA state may serve clients across all of them without a second licence. That is why a Cypriot company can serve German or Italian clients, and why the German regulator's register lists firms it did not itself authorise.
Client classification
MiFID sorts clients into three categories. Retail clients receive the fullest protections — leverage caps, negative balance protection, mandatory risk warnings, appropriateness assessment, best execution reporting. Professional clients receive substantially fewer. Eligible counterparties receive fewest of all.
A retail client meeting two of three criteria — significant trade frequency, a portfolio above €500,000, or a year in a relevant professional role — may request elective professional status. Doing so removes the leverage cap and, in most implementations, negative balance protection and compensation eligibility along with it. Brokers advertise the higher leverage; the protections that are given up are what the trade actually costs.
What MiFID does not do
It does not set the leverage caps. Those come from ESMA's product intervention measures, adopted in 2018 under MiFIR and since made permanent through national law in each member state. It does not run a compensation scheme either — that is the Investor Compensation Schemes Directive, implemented separately in each state with its own ceiling, which is why cover ranges from €20,000 in Cyprus to €100,000 in Spain.
Reading a broker page
"MiFID compliant" on its own says a firm operates within the European framework. It does not identify a regulator, a licence, a compensation scheme or a ceiling. Those come from the authorising state, and ProForexBrokers.com lists them separately for that reason.