Forex trading in Vietnam
Vietnam is one of the region's most active and most restrictive retail forex markets. The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) says no forex platform is licensed and that those operating online are illegal; the State Securities Commission (SSC) covers only securities and listed derivatives. Traders deal with offshore entities through Vietnamese-language sites and fund in dong by VietQR, internet banking or e-wallets where supported, while the SBV and police block domains and payment routes.
This page ranks 11 brokers from our 20-broker comparison that accept Vietnamese residents, eToro and FP Markets with medium confidence. KCM Trade, our Editor's choice, is ranked first; the other ten are ordered by depth of FCA, ASIC, CySEC, MAS, CFTC/NFA, FINMA or BaFin regulation, then confirmed dong funding, Vietnamese-language support and entry cost. IG, FOREX.com, AvaTrade and FxPro rest on secondary sources only; CMC Markets, Admirals, Swissquote and Plus500 are unconfirmed (all eight are listed further down as not verified); Saxo does not serve Vietnam.
Is forex trading legal in Vietnam?
Not in any licensed form. The SBV says it has not licensed any forex trading floor and that forex platforms operating online in Vietnam are illegal; only licensed credit institutions may provide foreign-exchange services. With the Ministry of Public Security it blocks broker domains, and it has told banks to stop payments to such platforms. Operating or brokering an unlicensed forex business carries administrative fines, reported at VND 200 to 250 million, and possible criminal liability.
- Individuals. The law is less explicit about a resident trading personal funds offshore, which commentators call a grey area; enforcement targets platforms and their local brokers.
- Exness. The SBV's Foreign Exchange Management Department told VietNamNet on 27 October 2023 that Exness's forex activity in Vietnam is illegal, and its .vn domains were blocked. Exness stays in the ranking, with that note on its card, as its help centre still documents Vietnamese funding.
- Other brokers. Vietnam keeps no standing warning list; the SBV's position is a blanket one and the SSC and police issue ad hoc warnings. Exness is the only one of our 20 we found named individually.
No Vietnamese regulator supervises these accounts, no compensation scheme covers them, and the SBV cannot help recover money. Its statements are on the State Bank of Vietnam website; our forex scams guide covers fake platforms.
Deposits and withdrawals in Vietnam
The dong rails found in our research are local bank transfer and internet banking (Vietcombank, BIDV, Techcombank), VietQR, Ngan Luong, MoMo and ZaloPay, Visa and Mastercard, Skrill and Neteller, and USDT bought peer to peer. The SBV has told banks to stop payments to forex platforms, so a bank transfer to a broker can be refused.
- Exness publishes a help-centre guide for VietQR deposits and withdrawals and VND bank funding.
- Pepperstone lists QR Pay alongside cards, bank transfer and e-wallets on its Vietnamese funding page.
- IC Markets lists an instant Vietnamese Online Banking deposit; XTB shows domestic bank transfer on its Vietnamese fees page; Tickmill lists Vietnam bank transfer.
- XM is reported to support VND transfer through Ngan Luong; we could not verify this on xm.com.
- OANDA, KCM Trade, eToro, FP Markets and Interactive Brokers: no Vietnam-specific method found on their sites.
Accounts are in US dollars, so dong is converted both ways. The currency converter shows the market VND rate to compare against a broker's or payment provider's conversion.
How to choose a forex broker in Vietnam
The account-holding entity comes first: Pepperstone's Vietnamese site runs under Pepperstone Markets Limited (Bahamas), IC Markets' under Raw Trading Ltd (Seychelles), OANDA's under OANDA Global Markets (BVI) and XTB's under XTB International (Belize). A group's FCA or ASIC licence does not cover those entities. Our guide on how to choose a forex broker covers the general tests.
- Regulation depth. Counting FCA, ASIC, CySEC, MAS, CFTC/NFA, FINMA and BaFin licences per group: Pepperstone, OANDA, eToro and Interactive Brokers hold four, IC Markets, XTB, Tickmill and FP Markets two, XM one, Exness none for retail clients.
- Dong funding. Confirmed on the broker's own pages for Exness, Pepperstone, IC Markets, XTB and Tickmill only.
- Vietnamese language. Every ranked broker except Interactive Brokers.
- Cost and leverage. Minimum deposits run from $0 to $1,000 at KCM Trade; EUR/USD runs from 1.0 pips at eToro to 0.0 pips plus commission on raw accounts, which the spread cost calculator turns into a cost per trade. Leverage runs from 1:50 to 1:5000 with no Vietnamese cap; see leverage and margin.
How we rank brokers for Vietnam
After KCM Trade, our Editor's choice, brokers are placed by the same checks, in this order: a licence from the local regulator where Vietnam issues one and the licensed entity is the one that serves local clients, depth of regulation (tier-1 and offshore licences both count), funding methods that work from Vietnam, a local-language site or support desk, the cost of getting started (minimum deposit and typical spread), and swap-free accounts where traders commonly ask for them. The order is an editorial judgement, not a computed score.
An (i) after a broker's description means it is named on the State Bank of Vietnam. The note records what the local regulator has published; it is not a finding of fraud, and it is removed when the entry is. Weigh it alongside the licences the broker holds.
Apart from KCM Trade, a broker is ranked among the verified brokers only when we could confirm, from its own website or the local regulator's register, that it opens accounts for residents of Vietnam. KCM Trade's availability in Vietnam was checked the same way. The 59 brokers marked Not verified follow them: we could not confirm from their own websites that they accept residents of Vietnam, most come from our wider broker directory, and their figures are indicative until we check them. Spreads, deposits and leverage are the same figures shown on our full broker comparison; leverage and protections depend on which of the broker's entities holds your account. Broker links may be partner links that earn ForexR a commission at no extra cost to you.
Brokers we did not rank for Vietnam
- SaxoVietnam is not on Saxo's published list of serviced countries.
Data last reviewed: September 2026. Availability, funding methods and rules change; confirm them on the broker's own website and with SBV before you open an account. This page is general information, not financial, legal or tax advice. CFDs and leveraged forex are complex instruments with a high risk of losing money rapidly.