Every rating and every fact on Bayan FX traces back to something we can point at: a regulator's own register, a broker's own published terms, or an official government warning list. This page describes exactly how — so you can check our work, not just trust it.
Step 1 — Register verification
Before a broker appears anywhere on Bayan FX, we confirm its international regulatory status directly against the regulator's own public register — not a broker's marketing claim, not a third-party directory. We check the exact legal entity name against the register, not just the brand name (a brand can operate through several entities, only some of which hold a given licence).
For each of the six brokers we currently cover, that means checking the entity against one or more of: CySEC's investment-firms register, the FCA's Financial Services Register, ASIC's Professional Registers, and the FSCA's licensed-provider search — the four international regulators our current shortlist actually holds licences with.
Separately, for every one of our six covered markets, we check the relevant local register or warning list — Bappebti's legality checker (Indonesia), the SC Malaysia Investor Alert List, SEC Philippines advisories, SEC Thailand's Investor Alert list, Vietnam's SSC/SBV, and (for India, which we do not monetise) SEBI/RBI. This is the step that lets us say, honestly, when a broker is internationally regulated but not locally licensed — see Step 4.
International registers
Local registers / warning lists
- Bappebti Indonesia
- SC Malaysia Malaysia
- SEC Philippines / BSP Philippines
- SEC Thailand Thailand
- SSC / SBV Vietnam
- SEBI / RBI India (honest-legality only, no monetisation)
Step 2 — Swap-free (Islamic account) verification
For Indonesia and Malaysia specifically — our two Muslim-majority markets — whether a broker's swap-free account is genuine is the single question that matters most to readers, so we verify it, not assume it.
What counts as genuine swap-free: the broker's own published account terms must state that no overnight swap/rollover interest is charged on the account, full stop. We read the broker's own Islamic-account or swap-free terms page — never a comparison site's summary of it — before marking a broker `swapFree: true` in our data.
The trap we check for: some brokers relabel the swap charge as a fixed "administration fee" or "overnight fee" that scales with position size and holding time. That is riba (interest) under a different name, not a genuine swap-free structure. Where we can see this pattern in a broker's own fee schedule, we say so plainly rather than pass it through as "Islamic account available".
We describe the mechanics of what a broker's account terms say. We do not issue religious rulings on what counts as halal — that determination is between a trader and their own religious guidance.
Step 3 — The null-rather-than-invent data policy
Our broker data file (`brokers.ts`) enforces this in the schema itself, not just in prose: fields we have not personally verified are typed as nullable and stay `null` until we can point at a source. We never estimate a spread, guess a minimum deposit, or invent a star rating to fill a gap in a comparison table. A blank cell on Bayan FX means "not yet verified" — never "assumed zero" or "assumed favourable".
| Data field | Policy |
|---|---|
| rating | Star rating — null until a hands-on review is written |
| minDeposit | Minimum deposit — null until verified from the broker's own published terms |
| typicalSpread | Typical spread — null until verified from the broker's own published rate card |
| affiliateUrl | Partner link — null until the affiliate program is actually joined (no placeholder links) |
| allowedGeo | Confirmed program geography — empty until a program's own terms confirm a market |
Step 4 — Local legality vs. international regulation
An international licence (CySEC, FCA, ASIC, FSCA) is not the same as a local licence. A broker can hold a real, verifiable CySEC licence and still be unlicensed to solicit clients in Thailand, the Philippines or Malaysia specifically — and can legitimately appear on that country's own regulator warning list for exactly that reason. When that's true of a broker we cover, we say so on the broker's page and on the relevant market guide, in the regulator's own words, rather than let a general "regulated" badge imply something false about local status. See our warning-list research for the specific entries we've verified.
Who does this work
Bayan FX's day-to-day research and writing is done by Pipex, a fully disclosed AI research agent — never a fabricated human persona. Pipex checks registers, reads brokers' own published terms, and pulls figures directly from primary sources; it does not give investment advice or predict returns. See the full disclosure at About Pipex.
A named human, Eitan Gorodetsky, Editorial Strategist, Lead Media, reviews the methodology and signs off on it — most recently on . Bayan FX is operated and published by Lead Media; a real person is accountable for everything on this site and reachable at hello@bayanforex.com.
Update cadence
We re-check a broker's regulatory status whenever we update or add content that references it, and at minimum on a quarterly review pass. Market-level regulatory facts (legality status, warning-list entries) are re-verified whenever we publish or refresh a market guide. The site-wide "last reviewed" date in the footer reflects the most recent full editorial pass; individual pages carry their own "updated" date where content has changed since.
What this methodology does not claim
- We do not run a 100+ variable annual testing programme. Some larger competitors publish an annual awards methodology testing dozens of brokers across 100+ data points with live-account trading tests. We don't claim to do that. What we do is narrower and verifiable: register checks, published-terms checks, and an honest null-until-verified policy — described above, not oversold.
- We do not open live trading accounts to test execution or spreads. Spread and cost figures come from a broker's own published rate card, when we display them at all — most currently show as "not yet verified" rather than a number pulled from a secondary source.
- A regulatory check is a point-in-time snapshot. Registers and warning lists change continuously. We re-verify on the cadence above, but always check a broker's live regulatory status yourself before depositing funds.
Frequently asked questions
Does Bayan FX get paid to rank a broker higher?
No. Our affiliate relationships (disclosed on every monetised page) determine whether we earn a commission if you open an account through our link — they never determine ranking or rating. A broker cannot pay for a better review, and several brokers we cover do not have an active affiliate link with us at all.
How do you verify a broker is genuinely regulated?
We look up the broker's exact legal entity name on the regulator's own public register (CySEC, FCA, ASIC, FSCA for our current shortlist) — not the brand name, not a third-party directory. See Step 1 above for the full process and the direct register links we use.
How do you know a swap-free account is genuinely Sharia-compliant?
We read the broker's own published Islamic-account or swap-free terms to confirm no overnight interest is charged, and check for the common trap where a "swap-free" account instead charges a fixed administration fee that scales with holding time (riba relabelled). We describe the mechanics; we do not issue religious rulings.
Why do some brokers show blank ratings, spreads or minimum deposits?
Because we haven't personally verified that figure yet. We would rather show a blank than a guessed or estimated number — see Step 3, the null-rather-than-invent policy.
Who is actually responsible for what's published on Bayan FX?
Pipex, our disclosed AI research agent, does the day-to-day research and writing. A real named human, Eitan Gorodetsky, reviews the methodology, and Lead Media operates and publishes the site and is reachable at hello@bayanforex.com. Nothing here is published without a real, accountable, named entity behind it.
How often is this methodology (and the data it produces) updated?
Broker regulatory status is re-checked whenever we touch content referencing it, and at minimum quarterly. Market-level legal facts are re-verified whenever a market guide is published or refreshed. See Update cadence above.