Not the editorial review score
The EBEI is a data-driven ranking(0–100) built from verifiable, published inputs — broker-published pricing, regulator-register checks and, as their capture pipelines come online, live spread snapshots, MiFID II RTS 28 reports and audited capital adequacy. It does not incorporate subjective assessments of platform quality, education, or customer support. Those factors are covered by our separate editorial review methodology, which produces a qualitative 1.0–10.0 score shown on each broker review page. The two systems are independent: neither feeds into the other.
Current data coverage
Two of the seven inputs are scored from live data in published issues today: each broker’s published EUR/USD spread and its tier-1 regulator licences. The other five — server uptime, RTS 28 slippage, audited capital adequacy, compensation-scheme ID and regulatory actions — are held at a documented neutral baseline for every broker until their capture pipelines go live, so they do not differentiate the current ranking. Published issues therefore state a spread- and uptime-observation count of zerorather than an estimate. Each input’s source below documents its designed capture method; its status states whether that method is live yet.
EUR/USD spread
Partially live25 pts
Status: Current issues score each broker's published 'typical' EUR/USD spread. The automated four-times-daily live-snapshot feed described below is not yet running, so no live spread observations are captured yet.
Source: Designed: live snapshots taken from each broker's published EUR/USD spread feed at 09:00, 13:00, 17:00, and 21:00 CET on every UK/EU trading day in the measurement window.
Notes: Until live capture runs, the broker-published 'typical' figure is used directly. When the snapshot feed is live, brokers without a public live-spread feed receive the published figure with a 0.2-pip unverifiability penalty.
Server uptime
Not yet capturing15 pts
Status: Not yet capturing — the probe fleet below is not live, so this category is held at a neutral baseline for every broker and does not differentiate the current ranking.
Source: Designed: third-party probes from EU IP locations (Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Dublin) to the broker's authenticated client portal every 5 minutes. Maintenance windows announced in advance are excluded.
Notes: Authenticated portal not public homepage — homepage uptime is misleading because the real trading infrastructure is behind login.
Execution-quality disclosure
Not yet capturing20 pts
Status: Not scoring — the MiFID II RTS 28 best-execution report, the source this category was designed around, was abolished in the 2024 MiFID II review (Article 27(6) deleted; Directive (EU) 2024/790, in force 29 March 2024, with ESMA deprioritising supervision from 13 February 2024). No broker publishes one, so the category is held at zero for every broker and does not separate the ranking pending a replacement source.
Source: Originally designed around the broker's most recent MiFID II RTS 28 annual best-execution report. That standardised reporting obligation was deleted in the 2024 MiFID II review, so the category is being re-based on broker-published execution statistics and order-execution-policy disclosures. Target metrics: slippage rate, average execution time, percentage of orders filled at the requested price.
Notes: The underlying MiFID II best-execution duty — the requirement to take all sufficient steps to obtain the best result and to maintain an order execution policy — remains in force; only the standardised RTS 27/RTS 28 report was withdrawn. Until a replacement source is ingested this category scores zero for every broker and is weight-neutral to the ranking.
Regulator licence completeness
Live in current issues15 pts
Status: Live — scored in every issue from the tier-1 licences the client-facing entity holds, verified against each regulator's public register.
Source: Number of tier-1 regulator licences (FCA, BaFin, AMF, CONSOB, CySEC, FINMA, AFM, etc.) directly held by the entity serving EU retail clients. Verified against each regulator's public register.
Notes: Group licences not directly held by the EU-serving entity do not count. We follow the contract path, not the marketing path.
Audited capital adequacy
Not yet capturing15 pts
Status: Not yet capturing — held at a neutral baseline for every broker until audited-report ingestion is live.
Source: Designed: most recent audited annual report. Capital adequacy ratio vs the CRR/CRD requirement for the broker's category. Big-4 auditor preferred — non-Big-4 auditor incurs a documentation request.
Notes: We do not penalise broker size — small EU-licensed brokers can score full marks if their capital ratio is healthy. Bias is against under-capitalised growth.
Compensation scheme membership
Partially live5 pts
Status: Partially live — a tier-1 EU/UK licence is currently treated as evidence of compensation-scheme cover. Direct scheme-membership-ID verification is the target.
Source: Designed: direct member of an EU investor compensation scheme (ICF Cyprus, FSCS UK, FGD Germany, etc.) with verified scheme membership ID.
Notes: Five-point category — included because it is binary and verifiable. The size of the protection is documented in each broker review.
Public-record regulatory action (12 months)
Not yet capturing5 pts
Status: Not yet capturing — held at the no-action baseline until the monitoring feed is live.
Source: Designed: penalties, sanctions, or formal warnings published by any tier-1 regulator against the broker entity in the trailing 12 months.
Notes: Trailing 12-month rolling window. A single resolved penalty does not zero the score, but stacked actions do.