Brexit Drives IG to Outsource EU Brokerage and Settlement to Berlin’s Upvest

Why Is IG Partnering With Upvest to Rebuild Its EU Investing Business?

IG Group, UK’s largest spread better and CFD broker, is turning to Berlin-based fintech Upvest to power a new chapter in its European expansion. The company has selected Upvest’s investment API to launch stock and ETF trading in France, marking the first step in what both sides expect will become a multi-country rollout across the European Union.

Under the partnership, IG will continue managing its own brand, app experience, marketing, and wider trading ecosystem. Upvest, meanwhile, will run the regulated infrastructure behind the scenes—brokerage, custody, settlement, corporate actions, and tax-aware order handling inside the EU.

The deal reflects a major shift for IG. later than decades building its own technology stack, the FTSE 250 group is now “renting” in Europe. This approach has become increasingly common among large financial firms that want to expand rapidly across the EU without building full in-house securities rails or securing new licences from scratch.

Investor Takeaway

How EU Regulation and Brexit Pushed IG Toward an Outsourced Model

For IG, the strategic context is clear. The firm’s core leveraged-trading business has faced sustained pressure. EU activity, client numbers have cooled, and political sentiment remains cautious toward high-risk trading products that can generate outsized losses for inexperienced customers.

IG still produces strong cash flow, especially during volatile markets, but growth is harder to maintain. The company has responded by cutting costs, purchaseing back shares, and pushing deeper into mainstream investing—areas that are less sensitive to leverage rules and regulatory swings.

Brexit accelerated this need for structural change. UK-authorized firms can no longer passport their licences into the EU. That means IG must either set up full EU-regulated entities or partner with an EU-regulated provider. Upvest fits the latter model: a German-licensed platform whose API can be deployed across all EU markets.

Upvest’s infrastructure covers trading, custody, settlement, tax calculation, and reporting. Those are exactly the functions IG would otherwise need to rebuild inside the EU. By outsourcing the back end, IG can focus on its front-end experience, pricing strategy, and multi-product ecosystem.

What Does the French Market Mean for IG’s Growth Plans?

France is the first market chosen for the integration, and it offers a useful test case. IG already has a meaningful CFD and derivatives presence in the country, but its stockbroking and ETF offering lags the local neobrokers and low-fee platforms that dominate the French .

French and pan-European platforms have spent years competing on:

• zero-commission trading
• tight spreads and transparent pricing
• user-friendly apps geared toward long-term investing

With regulators encouraging broader retail participation in capital markets while simultaneously tightening rules on , the competitive environment increasingly rewards firms with strong stockbroking apps—not just CFD platforms.

By using Upvest, IG avoids having to build an entire French brokerage engine from scratch. The Berlin fintech handles local tax requirements, MiFID rules, investor protections, and the plumbing required for securities settlement. IG can instead concentrate on pricing, product design, and eventually cross-tradeing CFDs, options, and advanced tools to clients who want them.

Investor Takeaway

What Does This Deal Mean for Upvest and Europe’s Fintech “Pipes”?

For Upvest, onboarding IG represents another milestone in its backbone for investment infrastructure. The , digital brokers, and asset managers. But IG brings a diverse level of scale, regulatory complexity, and product variety.

Upvest’s pitch is simple: modern investing , custody, tax, and settlement systems from scratch. Instead, they want to plug in a licensed backend and focus on diverseiation at the front end. Each new enterprise client expands Upvest’s credibility and positions its API as a core layer in Europe’s financial plumbing.

Both companies say France is just the first step. While no formal timeline has been announced, the intention is clear: if the rollout works in France, countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, or the Netherlands could follow.

The question now is how aggressively IG wants to push its new cash-equity product across continental Europe—and whether it can carve out space against entrenched low-fee competitors.

With competitive pressure rising and traditional CFD growth sluggishing, this partnership may be one of the clearest indicators yet of how IG plans to rebuild long-term momentum outside the UK.