How to Vet an Introducing Broker: A Due Diligence Checklist

If you want to know how to vet an introducing broker, start with one question: can this person show you real traders who deposit, trade and stay? Everything else (the follower count, the Telegram screenshots, the promises about volume) is secondary. Good IB due diligence is mostly about verifying that the client network exists, that it sits in markets you’re licensed to serve, and that the IB brings people in without breaking local promotion rules.

It doesn’t need to be a month-long audit. A focused review over a week or two, followed by a paid test period, catches most problems.

Below is the checklist we use when we introduce partners from our own network of 30+ IBs to brokers, and the warning signs that make us pass.

Why IB due diligence matters more in MENA

Across the region, a large share of new accounts arrive through partners. AIM Company’s 2026 research puts it at between 50% and 70% of new accounts at mid-size brokers coming through IBs, creators and communities. That makes IBs your main acquisition channel, and it also makes them your main source of risk.

A bad IB costs you in several ways. You pay CPA on clients who never trade again. Your payment providers see chargebacks and flag your merchant account. Your compliance team inherits clients who were promised things your licence doesn’t allow. And if the IB promotes you in a country where you have no permission to market, the regulator will look at you, not at them.

How to vet an introducing broker: start with the client book

Is the client book real?

Ask for evidence of an active client base, not an audience. Those are different things. An IB with 200,000 followers and 40 funded traders is a small IB. An IB with a 3,000-member private group and 150 traders who’ve been funded for two years is a serious one.

Useful things to request:

• Anonymised statements or partner-portal exports from their current or previous broker showing active clients, deposits and lots over several months
• The ratio of registrations to first-time deposits, and of first deposits to second deposits
• How long their typical client has been trading with them
• Average deposit size, so you can judge whether the book fits your account types

Redacted exports are fine if they won’t name their current broker. What you want to see is shape and consistency: steady activity month to month, not a single spike followed by silence.

Talk to the community, not only the IB

If the IB runs a Telegram or WhatsApp group, ask to sit in for a few days. Watch how members talk. Are they asking real questions about trades and platforms, or is the channel full of copy-paste hype? Real communities have friction and follow-up questions.

Where the clients live

Ask for the country mix, with rough proportions. It matters for three reasons.

First, your licence. If you’re onboarding clients from Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Iraq, you need to be clear on what your licence permits, how you onboard residents of those countries, and what you can say in marketing there.

Second, payments. A book that’s mostly Egyptian or Iraqi needs different deposit methods from one that’s mostly Emirati or Kuwaiti. If you can’t fund those clients easily, the IB will fail with you.

Third, economics. Average deposits and trading volume differ a lot between markets. A CPA that makes sense for a Gulf-heavy book may lose money on a book weighted to lower-deposit markets.

Checking how the IB acquires clients

Push for specifics here. Do they run paid ads? On which platforms, in which countries? Do they run webinars, physical seminars, signals groups, an education course, a YouTube channel? Do they use sub-IBs, and if so, how many and where?

Each method carries different risks. Paid social in the Gulf reaches a lot of people (Snapchat’s ad reach in Saudi Arabia equals about 73% of the population, according to DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report), but paid traffic tends to produce lower-intent clients than education-led communities. Sub-IB structures can scale fast but make it harder to know who’s actually talking to your clients. If the IB runs a multi-tier setup, read our piece on master IB and sub-IB structures before you agree terms.

Ask to see their ads and content. Ask what they say about risk, returns and your brand. An IB who gets defensive here is telling you something.

IB due diligence on compliance and reputation

Promotion rules

Promotion rules in the Gulf have tightened, and they apply to the people doing the promoting.

In Saudi Arabia, paid promotional content requires a Mawthooq licence. Ask for their Mawthooq status directly.

In the UAE, a finfluencer regime came in during 2025, setting expectations for people who promote financial products online. If your IB is UAE-based or targets UAE residents, ask how they’ve handled it and what licensing or registration they hold.

Beyond the formal rules, check the content itself. Any IB promising returns, implying trading is safe, or presenting leverage as a way to get rich quickly is a liability. Leveraged trading carries a high risk of loss, and your marketing (including what partners say on your behalf) should reflect that. Put content approval rights into the IB agreement so you can act if something goes wrong.

Reputation and identity

Do a basic background check. Search the IB’s name and brand in Arabic and English. Look for complaints from traders, disputes with previous brokers, and any regulatory warnings. Ask other brokers, too.

Ask the IB why they’re leaving, or adding to, their current broker. There are good reasons: late payments, poor support, a broker pulling out of a market. There are also bad ones: the previous broker caught bonus abuse or terminated them for misconduct. Our article on why IBs leave brokers covers the common honest reasons, which helps you spot answers that don’t add up.

Also check identity and corporate details. Who will you actually be paying? An individual, a company, which country? This feeds directly into your own AML checks on the partner.

Run a test period before committing

Even after a clean review, don’t sign a long exclusive deal with a large upfront commitment. Agree a test period, usually one to three months, with clear targets and a simple commission model. Some brokers start on rebates only and move to CPA or hybrid once quality is proven. Others cap CPA volume during the trial.

During the test, track:

What to measure	What good looks like	What should worry you
Registration to FTD rate	Steady and plausible for the channel	Very high registrations, very few deposits
Second deposit rate	A meaningful share redeposit	Almost nobody deposits twice
Trading activity	Clients trade over weeks	Minimum trades to trigger CPA, then silence
Country mix	Matches what the IB told you	Clients from markets they never mentioned
Chargebacks and disputes	Rare	Clusters soon after deposit
Duplicate or linked accounts	None or very few	Shared devices, IPs or payment cards

At the end of the test, sit down with the IB and the numbers. Good IBs welcome this. It’s how they earn better terms.

Red flags that should end the conversation

Any one of these is reason to slow down. Two or more and we’d usually walk away.

Bonus hunters. An IB who asks first about deposit bonuses, then about CPA, then about nothing else. Their clients often deposit the minimum, trade just enough to qualify, and leave. Some move as a group from broker to broker.

Fake engagement. Large follower counts with low, uniform engagement. Comments that all look alike. Accounts that grew by tens of thousands in a week. Telegram channels with many members and almost no reactions.

Promises of huge volume. “I’ll bring you 500 FTDs a month” from someone who can’t show 50. Real IBs tend to be cautious about forecasts because they know how hard client acquisition is.

Pressure for upfront money. Requests for large advances, marketing budgets paid before any clients arrive, or guaranteed minimum payments.

Unwillingness to share anything. Some privacy is normal. Total refusal to show evidence of a client base isn’t.

Marketing you’d never approve. Profit screenshots, “guaranteed” signals, claims that trading with you carries no risk.

Questions brokers ask

How long should IB due diligence take?

For most IBs, a week or two of review followed by a one to three month test period. Larger partners or master IBs with many sub-IBs deserve more time because there’s more to check.

What documents should I ask an IB for?

Identity and company documents, evidence of an existing client base (redacted exports are fine), a description of their acquisition methods with examples, their country mix, and any promotion licences such as Mawthooq for Saudi audiences.

Should I pay CPA to a new IB straight away?

Many brokers don’t. Starting on rebates, or on capped CPA during a trial, lets you see real client quality before committing to higher upfront payments. Every deal is negotiable, and good IBs understand why you’d want proof first.

How do I spot an IB sending bonus hunters?

Look at what happens after the first deposit. Bonus hunters deposit the minimum, trade just enough to qualify for a bonus or trigger CPA, then withdraw or go quiet. Linked accounts, shared payment details and clusters of similar behaviour are strong signals.

Can I hold the broker responsible if an IB breaks promotion rules?

Regulators generally expect brokers to control how they’re marketed, including by third parties. That’s why content approval rights, compliance clauses and the right to terminate belong in every IB agreement.

Working with vetted partners

Vetting takes time, and most brokers would rather spend that time on partners who’ve already been checked. If you’d like introductions to IBs we’ve worked with across the region, have a look at our IB and affiliate network service, or get in touch and tell us which markets you’re focused on.