Scalable Capital: what the sources say

The questions, with sources

"Not verified" means we could not confirm it from a source we could read. Check the entity and rules for your own country. Education only, not investment advice.

How the points add up

• Regulation 20 of 20. Licensed by a major financial regulator (see the broker page for the register entry)
• Client protection 20 of 20. Investor compensation scheme applies: German statutory deposit guarantee (cash); scheme operator not named on pages read; Client assets held separately from the broker's own (stated in its documents)
• Transparency 10 of 10. Annual financial statements are public (listed parent or published report)
• Security record 6 of 15. Worst incident in the last five years scored: 6 of 15
• Compliance record 25 of 25. 3 regulator or court action(s) in the window; reports from press only are shown but not scored
• Costs 7 of 10. Buying 1,000 USD of a US stock or ETF: 0.1% commission at the published base tier (FX and spread not included)

Points earned of points available. A criterion we could not verify is left out and lowers the evidence share. See how we score.

Security incidents

• 2024-08-05 Temporary outage: customers could not access their custody accounts, phone support unreachable and trading only partly possible during a high-volume market day; press attributed the problems to restrictions at custodian Baader Bank (press, Finanztip). Customer funds lost: no. Outcome: Systems returned to normal during the day; order execution reported unaffected; no compensation mentioned (press). source
• 2020-10 Unauthorized access to documents in digital archive; press: more than 30,000 people (23,000 customers plus 9,000 prospects/test users) with identity documents, account numbers, settlement statements and tax IDs affected Customer funds lost: no. Outcome: Company said customer assets were never at risk; supervisory authorities informed; 12 months credit monitoring offered (older than 2021-10-11 window). Follow-on litigation: see legal_actions (LG Muenchen I 2021, CJEU 2024). source older than 5 years

Regulator and court actions

• 2024-06-20 Court of Justice of the European Union (joined cases C-182/22 and C-189/22 'Scalable Capital', referred by Amtsgericht Muenchen): Preliminary ruling on Art. 82(1) GDPR in two investors' claims for non-material damages against Scalable Capital GmbH after the 2020 data theft from its trading app (tens of thousands affected per referring court). Outcome: CJEU held damages are purely compensatory, gravity/intent need not be considered, small sums may be awarded for minor harm, and compensation is not limited to proven identity theft; national court to decide the claims (legal publisher summary; CJEU page not opened). source
• 2021-12-09 Landgericht Muenchen I (31st civil chamber): Civil judgment for one customer affected by the 2020 data theft (about 33,000 people affected per press): identity theft found, compensation under Art. 82 GDPR. Outcome: EUR 2,500 damages awarded and liability for future damages; not final at time of report, company announced it considered the ruling wrong (press, Startbase citing FAZ). source
• 2025-02 Verbraucherzentrale Baden-Wuerttemberg (consumer organisation), per secondary source: Secondary source (Wikipedia) states consumer centre warned the company over presentation of interest on cash balances. A March 2026 press article (GIGA) reports further public criticism by the same organisation of the 'Tagesgeld' label for cash held in money market funds; no formal action reported. Outcome: Not verified from primary source; no regulator or court outcome reported source

Actions reported by press only are shown and not scored.

Key facts in five lines

• Scalable Capital Bank GmbH is a BaFin-supervised credit institution; the ECB granted it a full banking licence announced 10 September 2025 [source 1][source 6].
• Base tier FREE charges EUR 0.99 per trade on the European Investor Exchange and EUR 1.99 on Xetra/gettex; US stocks are offered as EUR listings among 8,000+ global stocks [source 2][source 12].
• Official help centre: in insolvency customers have a claim to return of their securities, which are not part of the insolvency estate; cash carries the statutory EUR 100,000 deposit guarantee per bank [source 11][source 2].
• The 2020 archive data theft affected more than 30,000 people and led to a EUR 2,500 damages judgment (LG Muenchen I, 2021) and a CJEU preliminary ruling on GDPR damages (20 June 2024) [source 3][source 7][source 8].
• Statutory annual accounts of Scalable Capital Bank GmbH for 2020-2024 are listed as published (aggregator); no regulator fine found in three legal searches [source 14][source 9].

Questions about Scalable Capital

Is Scalable Capital safe?

We do not give a yes or no. We record its regulation (BaFin (with Deutsche Bundesbank); ECB granted deposit-taking and lending permission (CRR credit institution)), whether an investor compensation scheme applies, and what we found about incidents and regulator actions. Read the sections above, and check which entity holds your account.

Does Scalable Capital charge commission on US stocks?

Official cost page (read 2026-10-11): base tier FREE (EUR 0.00/month): EUR 0.99 per trade on European Investor Exchange; EUR 1.99 per trade on Xetra and gettex; PRIME ETF purchases from EUR 250 EUR 0. PRIME+ (EUR 4.99/month): EUR 0 for orders from EUR 250 on EIX, else EUR 0.99. Official stock-trading page lists US names (Apple, Nvidia, Tesla etc.) among 8,000+ global stocks, traded in EUR on German venues; no USD trading. DE fact sheet 2026-03 states Xetra EUR 3.99 plus 0.01% venue fee (min EUR 1.50) while AT fact sheet 2026-09 and cost page state EUR 1.99 with venue fees waived; conflict not resolved.

Where this comes from

• [1] Scalable Capital legal information accessed 2026-10-11
• [2] Scalable Capital cost overview accessed 2026-10-11
• [3] test.de: Datenklau bei Scalable Capital accessed 2026-10-11
• [4] Scalable Capital Fact Sheet Germany (2026-03) accessed 2026-10-11
• [5] Scalable Capital (Wikipedia, secondary) accessed 2026-10-11
• [6] Scalable Capital press release: full banking licence (2025-09-10) accessed 2026-10-11
• [7] Otto Schmidt: CJEU C-182/22 and C-189/22 Scalable Capital (legal publisher) accessed 2026-10-11
• [8] Startbase: LG Muenchen I damages judgment (press) accessed 2026-10-11
• [9] Finanztip: outage 5 August 2024 (press) accessed 2026-10-11
• [10] Scalable Capital Fact Sheet Austria EN (2026-09) accessed 2026-10-11
• [11] Scalable Capital help centre: What happens in case of insolvency? (official) accessed 2026-10-11
• [12] Scalable Capital: Stocks in the Scalable Broker (official product page, IT site EN) accessed 2026-10-11
• [13] Scalable Capital help centre: Which securities can be traded via the Scalable Broker? (official) accessed 2026-10-11
• [14] North Data: Scalable Capital Bank GmbH, HRB 217778 (third-party register aggregator listing published Jahresabschluesse 2020-2024) accessed 2026-10-11

Not verified: BaFin company register entry not opened (did not appear in search results); licence rests on company pages. cost_1000usd_pct = 0.1 assumes the US stock is bought as a EUR listing on the European Investor Exchange at EUR 0.99 (official cost page); the official pages do not explicitly say 'US stocks' but list Apple/Nvidia/Tesla as buyable. FX, inactivity and withdrawal fees not stated on official pages. Securities protection now from official help centre (claim to return of securities, not part of insolvency estate) but deposit-scheme operator and any EdW cover are not named. Financials 'yes' rests on North Data listing of published Jahresabschluesse (Unternehmensregister not opened). Xetra fee conflict between DE fact sheet (EUR 3.99 + venue fee) and cost page/AT fact sheet (EUR 1.99) unresolved. CJEU ruling via legal publisher summary, LG Muenchen judgment and 2024 outage via press only; Feb 2025 consumer-centre item rests on Wikipedia. Three incident and three legal searches found no regulator fine and no company-wide breach since 2021-10-11.

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