Independent Reserve exchange profile: services, fees, custody and eligibility

Independent Reserve is a centralised exchange with an order book, an OTC desk and a regional focus on Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Its current company page reports more than 550,000 customers worldwide. That broad customer count does not establish how many accounts trade each month or the liquidity available in a particular market. The service began in 2013 and continues under the Independent Reserve brand.[1]

The API documents separate limit and market-order operations, cancellation, open orders, balances and deposit or withdrawal limits. Its authenticated requests use HMAC-SHA256 signatures and a nonce. A cancelled order may already have fills; reconcile the returned state and trade history before sending a replacement. Public data access and permission to move account assets are different capabilities. The existence of an endpoint does not override account verification, withdrawal controls or an applicable rate limit.[16]

Recurring purchases require sufficient funds at the scheduled execution time. They automate timing, while the quantity acquired still depends on the available market price and applicable fee. A regular cash allocation therefore does not purchase a fixed quantity of cryptocurrency. Scheduling also creates a separate operational dependency: a bank transfer arriving after the intended run cannot fund that earlier purchase. The account history is the appropriate record for each individual execution.[14]

The OTC service covers personal, trust, company and institutional clients and supports AUD, USD and NZD. It can source assets beyond the ordinary exchange menu on request. The desk describes most settlements as occurring the same day; this is an operating expectation, not a guarantee covering every currency, compliance review or bank. Its all-inclusive quote should be compared with the amount actually delivered, rather than the exchange commission alone. A public order-book tier is not automatically the OTC tariff.[15]

For Australian and New Zealand customers, leveraged trading requires a suitability assessment. Singapore access is restricted to approved corporate accredited investors, with supporting evidence and annual revalidation. The published maximum is 5x: one unit of contributed collateral can support four units advanced by the exchange. Stop-loss instructions trigger execution at available market prices and do not guarantee a particular exit value. The product creates borrowing and liquidation exposure; it should not be read as a cash-only spot purchase.[7]

Rolling 30-day AUD turnover is recalculated every four hours. Commission is fixed at order placement; existing orders retain their rate.[5]

Illustration: AUD10,000 at 0.50% costs AUD50 per trade, excluding spread, transfers and financing.[5]

Leveraged borrowing accrues every ten seconds at the published daily rate: 0.05% for a long position or 0.03% for a short position. Ordinary trading commission still applies to entry and exit. Liquidation adds 1% of the borrowed amount. Illustratively, AUD10,000 borrowed long for exactly seven days costs AUD35 in simple financing before trading, liquidation or price effects. The fee is based on the advance, not merely the client’s collateral.[8][5]

Singapore terms permit an account-management and custody charge after 12 months without login or transactions. No amount is specified in that clause.[3]

Singapore funding costs depend on the actual bank route, account prefix and amount. A SGD500 ordinary FAST deposit followed by a SGD500 FAST withdrawal would incur SGD4 in listed exchange transfer charges. The same assumptions must not be applied to the 0.45% account-prefix exception. Intermediary-bank deductions and currency conversion can change the cash arriving at the destination even where the exchange’s own charge is fixed.[6]

Bank funding begins with account verification and the bank instructions shown for that account. The operator advertises AUD, NZD, USD and region-dependent SGD access. A currency appearing on a group website does not mean every contracting entity accepts it. Match the beneficiary, payment reference and currency to the current deposit instruction. Trading availability after a credit and a bank’s processing hours are separate stages of the journey.[21]

The SWIFT guide gives a typical one-to-two-day deposit processing period for NZD and USD. Its older fee examples differ from the current dedicated tariff, which is used in this profile. Processing estimates should not be read as a same-day promise: sending banks, intermediary checks, public holidays and incorrect payment references can delay receipt. An inbound transfer is not complete simply because it has left the customer’s bank.[22]

The FAQ describes Australian EFT withdrawals as typically arriving the next business day and PayID withdrawals within minutes. Crypto withdrawals require a verified address-book destination, including whether it belongs to the customer or another platform. SMS checks and manual review can precede broadcasting. Blockchain confirmation time is an additional stage after release, so a pending exchange review and an on-chain transaction need different investigation. The older FAQ’s general international withdrawal price is not used where the fee schedule gives a specific current route.[10]

Crypto deposits are free. Selected withdrawals: BTC/Bitcoin 0.0001 BTC; ETH/mainnet 0.003 ETH; ETH/Base or Arbitrum 0.0004 ETH; SOL 0.001 SOL; USDC/mainnet 10 USDC, versus 1 on listed Solana/Base/Arbitrum routes. Fees can include wallet management.[5]

The Australian contract places cryptocurrency on trust, held through the exchange’s infrastructure or custody providers, subject to amounts owed. Australian fiat is expressly not held on trust, except under the unallocated-deposit policy. The October 2026 terms also allow the operator to stake client cryptocurrency without further consent and retain the rewards. That authority is not a customer yield entitlement. Third-party custody can involve transferring private keys; a custodian’s fault is not automatically attributed to the exchange. For staking loss caused solely by its own negligent or wrongful acts or omissions, the Australian contract separately promises an indemnity; that is narrower than covering every slashing or network loss.[2]

Singapore has a different contractual structure. Fiat is held in a trust account at a licensed Singapore bank and can be pooled with other customers’ money; a shortfall can affect customers proportionately. Cryptocurrency is also held on trust, segregated from business assets, with pooled wallets and internal ownership records. The named custody provider is Independent Reserve Pty. Ltd. in Australia, and the Singapore terms require at least 90% in cold storage. Beneficial ownership remains with the customer. These provisions explain why the contracting entity matters even when the interface and brand are shared.[3]

A Standard account requires full identity verification. FastTrack access allows limited deposits and trading but prevents API use and all fiat or cryptocurrency withdrawals until Standard verification is complete. Funding an incompletely verified account therefore does not establish an immediate exit route. Account approval may require identity, address or source-of-funds evidence beyond the initial application. Individual customers must be adults, while companies and trusts follow entity-specific onboarding.[12]

The Singapore onboarding page accepts supported jurisdictions and considers some other applications individually. Australia, New Zealand and Singapore appear in its regional guidance, but an application from elsewhere can require additional evidence and approval. Residence, entity location and product classification should be checked independently. An approved spot account does not establish eligibility for leveraged trading or every payment service.[13]

Personal accounts allow unlimited viewers, one administrator and one of the other role types. Company and trust accounts allow unlimited viewers, two administrators and two of the other roles. Assigning a role is a financial authority decision: a trader who can also change withdrawal destinations has materially greater control than a reporting-only user. The permitted headcount does not itself create a dual-approval requirement for each transfer.[17]

Company and trust access are separate onboarding routes. The applicant needs to establish the organisation and the authority of the person operating the account; a personal registration should not be used as a substitute for the entity that owns the assets. Entity records, authorised users and bank-account ownership should remain consistent as directors, trustees or signatories change. The commercial-account pages describe these structures without making every applicant automatically eligible.[19][20]

The operator advertises 24/7 support through an encrypted account portal. Account-specific issues belong in that authenticated channel; public social-media responses are not a secure substitute for submitting identification or transaction records. A useful transfer case includes the asset, network, transaction hash, account reference and timing. A disputed execution needs the order identifier, fills and requested resolution.[18]

The published complaint procedure asks customers to open a ticket under Other and select the complaint query type, then attach the facts and supporting records. It targets written acknowledgement within one business day and a final written response within 30 calendar days. Retain the complaint reference and the written response so that a later escalation concerns the same dispute and evidence. The Australian terms also provide for a delay notice before that deadline and referral to AFCA if dissatisfied. Making a complaint is free.[11][2]

After 30 days of good-faith negotiation, Singapore disputes may proceed to SIAC arbitration by mutual agreement.[3]

The Australian closure terms allow sale of remaining crypto at market, less fees, followed by bank remittance in the original funding currency. In-kind return is not guaranteed.[2]

The Australian company page states AUSTRAC registration DCE-100461150-001. A current firm-level register entry was not independently retrieved, so this remains an operator-attributed claim.[1]

The actual MAS directory identifies the Singapore entity and its payment activities. Permission remains entity- and activity-specific; it does not extend to every group product or the Australian company.[4]

IG announced an initial 70% acquisition in September 2025, with management and employees retaining 30% at completion. Its acquisition appendix reported 129,400 funded accounts and AUD1.7 billion in custody at June 2025, plus approximately 11,600 average monthly active customers for the preceding year. The figures were explicitly unaudited. Funded meant a cash or crypto balance at period-end; active meant trading during a month. These definitions explain why neither number is directly comparable with the broader customer total on the current company page.[23]

IG confirmed completion on 30 January 2026 after MAS approval. The announcement discussed future regional product integration; it did not establish that every planned IG service was already live. Corporate ownership and account-level legal rights remain separate matters. The exchange’s operating terms and the entity assigned to the account continue to determine custody, funding and dispute handling.[24]

Operator

Independent Reserve Pty. Ltd.; Independent Reserve SG Pte. Ltd.

Exchange model

Centralised

Service scope

Order-book and OTC cryptocurrency services, recurring buying and region-restricted leveraged positions.

Client types

Retail clients; Professional clients; Institutional clients

Pricing publication

Public and quoted pricing

Funding scope

AUD, NZD and USD routes; Singapore SGD/USD schedules and country-specific bank access.

Custody and asset handling

Australian crypto trust; ordinary Australian fiat not on trust. Singapore uses fiat and crypto trusts. Australian terms allow operator-retained staking rewards.

Client eligibility

Identity verification and country approval apply. FastTrack cannot withdraw or use API until Standard verification. Singapore leverage is limited to approved corporate accredited investors.

Support

24/7 authenticated support; published complaint acknowledgement and final-response targets.

Authorisation and registration scope

MAS actual firm entry verified for the Singapore Major Payment Institution. Australian AUSTRAC registration is operator-stated in the reviewed evidence.

Exchange metadata checked 20 Oct 2026Source 1Source 2Source 3Source 4Source 5Source 6Source 7Source 12Source 18

Older FAQ and SWIFT-guide tariffs differ from the dedicated current fee schedules; the latter are used for quoted prices. Keep execution, bank and blockchain records separately because they identify different stages and charges. The Australian unallocated-deposit policy concerns funds whose owner remains unidentified, with no ownership claim within 18 months. It permits an A$250 search charge and a 1% monthly management charge, both excluding GST, deducted before repayment; this is separate from ordinary bank-transfer pricing.[10][22][2]