Hey! This article will give you our honest review of a recent online broker: BUX, a subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank, one of the largest Dutch banks.
BUX is a mobile-only, low-commission stock, ETF and ETC trading app with over 1 million users. Currently, it is only available to investors from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.
That’s BUX in a nutshell. If you want to find out what our research team has to say after carefully analyzing BUX, keep on reading our BUX Review.
Overview
Launched in 2019, the BUX app has positioned itself as an affordable way for Europeans to increase their savings. It brings a simple and elegant way to start investing.
The coronavirus pandemic brought many young investors to the stock market who do not want clutter and confusion. BUX saw this as an opportunity to increase its client base.
Moreover, BUX did not experience any system failures during this period, which is a strong confirmation that its backend broker (ABN AMRO Clearing Bank N.V.) has paid off. Robinhood’s clients had a different experience (read here).
Currently, BUX remains only a mobile app, meaning everything from account opening to your investment activity is made 100% through your mobile device.
If you already know where you want to allocate your hardworking cash, the app might be a good alternative for you because, by just giving you some variety of financial products with minimalistic app features, it means less additional costs for your wallet.
BUX provides “the investment service of reception and transmission of Client Orders”. What does this mean? Well, it means that it only acts as an intermediary between you and the party you are buying/selling from financial instruments (stocks, ETFs and ETCs), with no complex in-house features that allow keeping its cost low!
Despite having a contact support team, it provides neither investment nor tax advice.
If you do not have the time to read the “Client Agreement” document, let us mention a crucial point you should be aware of, but, unfortunately, few investors pay attention to it.
Using the BUX app, you give your consent to lend the financial instruments held in your account (for short-selling, for instance). While lending your shares allows BUX to significantly reduce costs and have a low commission structure, this also implies an additional small (yet existent) risk for investors. To mitigate it, BUX will procure to hold collateral to at least the value of the lent’s financial instruments.
Highlights
| 🗺️ Supported Countries | 8 European countries |
| 💰 Stocks/ETFs/ETCs fees | Up to €1.99 per order |
| 💰 Currency Conversion fee | 0.25% |
| 💰 Monthly Service Fee | €2.99 |
| 💵 Minimum Deposit | €0 |
| 📍 Products offered | Stocks, ETFs and ETCs |
| 🎮 Demo Account | No |
| 📜 Regulatory entities | Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten – AFM) |
Pros and cons
Pros
- Low commissions on stock, ETF and ETC trading
- Offers one free share of up to 200€ upon deposit
- Fractional investing
- Modern and user-friendly mobile app
- No inactivity, custody, deposit or withdrawal fee
- No minimum required deposit
Cons
- Zero order execution delay
- No demo account
- Limited financial products
- Only available in eight countries
Products and markets
The investment options available are still limited in terms of the variety of products and markets to choose from. It offers US and EU stocks (Dutch, German, Belgian, French, and Austrian) and only 30+ ETFs to trade. Check its product list for any updates.
It is virtually impossible for investors with smaller amounts to buy one share of Amazon, Tesla, Alphabet (Google), and other big companies. That´s why BUX started offering fractional investing. For as low as €10, you can buy a portion of a share, allowing you to further diversify your portfolio. So, instead of purchasing a full share of Tesla for $340, you can choose the amount you want to invest and receive your proportional share of the stock.
Finally, BUX offers monthly investment plans in stocks and ETFs of your choice, regardless of how many stocks and ETFs are included in the investment plan. If you do not want to invest in a particular month, no fee will be charged that month.
Fees
When it comes to fees, BUX is very transparent. First of all, it charges no commission for Zero Orders (EU stocks or ETFs) and investment plan orders.
For market and limit orders, it only charges €1.99 for EU stocks and ETFs and €0.99 for US stocks.
“How does a Zero Order work?” you may be wondering. In simple terms, a Zero Order allows BUX to collect all users’ orders for the day and send them to the stock market at the end of the trading day, between 4 and 5 p.m. (CET). However, remember that the price executed might not be what you were expecting.
For that reason, BUX has built a safety measure to avoid overpaying or underselling. That is, BUX will automatically cancel a buy order if the difference between the market price at the end of the day and the price at the moment you place the order is higher than 4 per cent. For a sell order, the difference in pricing may not be higher than 5 per cent.
Currency conversion costs
Last but not least, the BUX trading app also earns money through FX markup when you want to buy US stocks. As you know, such stocks are quoted in dollars, so you need to convert some of your euros to buy them and the other way around when selling them. For this service, BUX applies a fee of 0.25% to the EUR/USD FX spot rate. Example: If €1 is worth $1.10 in the market, you will only receive $1.09725.
Spreads
Like any other broker, BUX charges a spread cost indirectly implicit in the price you buy/sell any security.
Each order is executed at the best available market price. Every time you buy/sell a stock, there is always a spread cost that varies according to the stock you are buying/selling, which is charged by the Market Maker, an entity not related to BUX Zero. In other words, BUX Zero has no control over this percentage and earns nothing from this.
The spread is not fixed, and it can vary according to three main factors:
- Stocks involved (e.g. Apple is very liquid, so lower spread)
- Time of the day (e.g. The time overlap during the trading day when both the New York and London currency markets are open is considered the most liquid time window)
- Market volatility (e.g. Higher volatility leads to higher spreads to compensate market makers for the increased risk of holding stocks or any other asset).
Based on the last two years, BUX Zero estimates that the spread cost on the stocks they offer is 0.08% and 0.0574% for EU and US Stocks, respectively.
Safety and regulation
In terms of safety, BUX B.V. is authorized and regulated by the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten – AFM).
As such, their clients benefit from the Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS) that assures their money up to €100,000 in the event of the bankruptcy of ABN AMRO Clearing Bank N.V. and the Investor Compensation Scheme (ICS) compensates your investments (assets) up to an amount of €20,000 if BUX B.V. goes bankrupt.
However, it is just a legal requirement because, in practice, it should not “matter” since your cash (temporary money for settlement purposes) and assets are held in a “Stitching” (a foundation under Dutch law) called BUX Custody which has the sole purpose of holding Financial Instruments and money for Clients.
- The money that appears in your account balance is in ABN Clearing Bank;
- The assets are held in BUX Custody.
Do you want to read a deeper analysis? Check out our dedicated article on investment protection (for EU investors)!
Countries accepted
BUX is available in eight European countries offering only EUR-based accounts. Their services are available in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain.
Looking for an online broker that accepts clients in other countries? We’ve reviewed other leading online brokers that operate globally, such as eToro, DEGIRO, and XTB.
