The FxPro Identity Check, Done Once

Which Documents Pass First Time

Documents pass first time when the name, the photo and the edges are all clear. A passport, a driver's licence or a national ID works as photo ID, provided the whole document is in frame, the corners are visible and the text is readable without glare. A photo of a photo, or a scan with a thumb over the number, is the usual reason a submission comes back.

Proof of address passes when the document is recent, shows your name and shows the address you entered on the form. A bank statement or a utility bill in your name is the familiar shape of it. The address has to match what you typed, character for character, including unit numbers and the way the street is spelled.

Take the photos in daylight, flat on a surface, with the camera square to the page. That single habit removes most of the reasons a document is rejected, and it costs you nothing but a minute.

What Sends a Document Back

A document comes back when the name does not match, when the address does not match, when the image is cropped or blurred, or when the document has expired. Any one of those is enough. The fix is not to send a different document, it is to send the same one properly, or to update the account details so the two agree.

The trap for readers in the Philippines is the address. A billing address that differs from the address on your ID is common, and it is fine, as long as the proof of address you upload matches the address on the account. If you moved recently, update the account first and then upload, rather than uploading and hoping the mismatch is overlooked.

Do not send more documents than are asked for. Extra files do not speed anything up, and they can create a second record that has to be reconciled. Send exactly what the step requests, in the format it requests.

Why Finish It Before the First Deposit

Finish verification before you deposit because an unverified account can restrict what you do with the money once it arrives. The deposit itself is not the problem; the problem is finding out afterwards that you cannot withdraw or that a step is pending. Doing the check first means the first deposit lands in an account that is ready.

The order also protects your funding decision. Once the account is verified you know which entity serves you, and therefore which leverage cap applies. At that cap, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, and our margin calculator turns that into a peso figure at the prevailing rate so you can size the deposit against a real number.

FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, not by the SEC of the Philippines. Knowing that before you deposit tells you what recourse you have and what you do not. Verification is also where you confirm the account is in your own name, which matters later when you withdraw to GCash or a bank account that must match.

The Anti-Money Laundering Act Requires FxPro to Identify You Before You Trade

The check exists because Philippine anti-money laundering rules and the broker's own licensing obligations require it. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, not by the SEC of the Philippines, but it still has to run know-your-customer checks on every client it accepts. Under the Anti-Money Laundering Act, covered institutions must identify customers, verify their identity and keep records before opening an account or processing transactions. For a broker serving Filipino clients, that means your passport or ID, your address and the source of your funds have to be on file before the account is fully live. The check is a legal condition of doing business, not a customer-service step that can be waived.

The law requires the broker to know who you are before money moves, so verification is tied to the first deposit rather than to trading alone. The Anti-Money Laundering Act obliges covered institutions to conduct customer due diligence before establishing a business relationship. In practice, FxPro cannot treat your account as fully open until the identity and address documents are approved. That is why a deposit can land in your account while the account itself is still restricted. The broker is not being difficult; it is meeting a record-keeping duty that applies to every client, including those funding through GCash or a local bank transfer.

The requirement follows the broker's licence and the country's AML framework, so it applies even though the SEC of the Philippines does not regulate FxPro. FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and those licences carry their own anti-money-laundering conditions that travel with the entity serving the Philippines. The local Anti-Money Laundering Act adds a parallel duty on institutions operating in or into the country. The result is a check that is not optional and not a marketing gate. It is the record that lets the broker show, if asked, that it knew who its client was before accepting a deposit and before allowing a gold position such as 0.10 lots of XAU/USD to be opened.

Misspelled Names, Cropped Corners and Glare Cause Most Rejections

The document mistakes that cause a rejection are almost always presentation faults, not fraud. A name typed differently from the one on the ID, a photo with a corner cropped off, a glare across the passport number, an expired ID or a proof-of-address bill older than the broker's recency window will all send the file back. So will a screenshot instead of a scan, a document photographed at an angle, or a page where the address is partly covered by a finger. The reviewer is matching what they see against what you typed, and any mismatch or unreadable patch forces a second look.

A rejection usually means the reviewer could not read or match one field, so the fix is to re-shoot the same document rather than send a different one. If the name on your ID reads Maria Santos-Cruz and you typed Maria Cruz, the system flags it. If the address on your bank statement is your old barangay and your profile shows the new one, that is a mismatch. If the document is a mobile photo with a shadow across the date of birth, the date cannot be verified. Correct the typed field first, then resubmit the same document in a flat, well-lit scan or photo with all four corners visible.

The fastest way to avoid a rejection is to check four things before uploading: the full name matches exactly, the document is unexpired, all four edges are in frame, and the text is sharp. Those four checks cover most of what sends a file back. A passport, a driver's licence or a national ID all work as identity proof, but only if the name and number are legible. For proof of address, the document must show your name and your current address clearly. If any of those four checks fails, the reviewer cannot complete the match, and the file returns to you for a corrected copy.

A Deposit Made Before Approval Lands in the Account but Stays Restricted

A deposit made before approval is usually credited to your account but cannot be traded with until verification is complete. The money is not lost; it sits in the account while the identity and address checks are pending. What you cannot do is open or close a position, so a gold trade in XAU/USD stays blocked even though the balance shows. The practical effect is that the funds are parked, not working. The broker's terms normally allow the deposit to be returned to the source if the account is never approved, but the deposit itself does not speed up the review.

The review clock starts when a complete document set arrives, not when the deposit arrives, so funding first does not move you up any queue. A deposit through GCash or a bank transfer is recorded against your account number, and the verification team still works through its own queue in the order complete files are received. Sending money early can create a second problem: if the name on the sending account differs from the name on the trading account, the payment may need a separate match before it is accepted. The clean sequence is to submit the documents, wait for approval, then fund.

Trading before approval is blocked by the platform, so the risk of a pre-approval deposit is tied-up cash rather than a lost trade. The account can receive the funds, but the trading permissions stay off until the checks clear. That means no position in gold, no margin used, and no profit or loss generated while you wait. If you are funding in pesos through GCash or a local bank transfer, the amount sits idle for the length of the review. The safer habit is to treat verification as the first step and the deposit as the second, so your capital is only committed once the account can actually use it.

The Suitability Questionnaire Sets Your Trading Permissions, Not Your Tax Rate

The suitability questionnaire is a short set of questions about your trading experience, financial situation and investment objective, and the answers determine whether the account is approved for the products you want. It is not a test you can fail in the ordinary sense, but inconsistent or clearly unsuitable answers can lead the broker to restrict what you can trade or ask for more information. The answers are recorded as part of your client file. They do not change your tax position, your funding method or your ability to deposit; they change the permissions attached to the account and the record of why those permissions were given.

The answers change the products and leverage the broker will allow, so a profile that says no experience with leveraged products can lead to a more limited account. If you state that you have never traded a leveraged instrument, the broker may still open the account but restrict it to lower-risk permissions or require you to acknowledge the risk before trading gold. If you overstate your experience, you create a record that does not match your actual trading, which can matter later if a dispute arises. The honest answer is the useful one: it produces permissions that fit, rather than permissions you have to defend.

The questionnaire mainly changes what you can trade and how much margin the account can use, so answer it as a description of your situation rather than as a hurdle. A retail profile with limited experience will typically be matched to the leverage cap that applies to the entity serving the Philippines, and that cap is a ceiling, not a target. At that cap, a 0.10-lot gold position needs about $85.50 margin, which gives you a concrete sense of what the permission means in cash terms. The answers do not change the cap itself; they confirm that the account is suitable for the products it is being given.

Accepted Proof of Address in the Philippines Is a Recent Utility Bill, Bank Statement or Official Letter

Accepted proof of address in the Philippines is a document that shows your full name and your current residential address, issued by a utility company, a bank or a government body, and it must be recent. A Meralco or Maynilad bill, a bank statement from a Philippine bank, a barangay certificate or a government-issued letter all fit that description when they carry your name and address clearly. The document has to be a full page or a clear scan, not a screenshot, and the address on it must match the address you entered in your profile.

How recent the document must be depends on the broker's current recency rule, so check the upload page for the exact window rather than assume a fixed number of months. What you can rely on is that an old bill will be refused even if everything else is correct, because the point of the document is to show where you live now. A statement dated within the broker's stated window, with your name and address legible, is the safe choice. If your address has changed recently, use a document issued after the move, not one from the previous address.

The document must be a bill, statement or official letter, not a handwritten note or a mobile screenshot, and it must show the address in the same form you typed. A bank statement from a Philippine bank is often the simplest option because it carries your name, address and a recent date in one page. A utility bill works if the account is in your name; if it is in a family member's name, it will not match your profile. The reviewer is checking name, address and recency together, so a document that is clear on all three is what gets approved.

A Different Name on the Card or Sending Account Triggers a Source-of-Funds Check

When the name on the document and the name on the card or sending account differ, the broker treats the payment as third-party and asks for an explanation before crediting it. A deposit from a GCash wallet or a bank account held by your spouse, a parent or a friend does not match the name on your trading account, so the payment is flagged. The funds are usually held rather than returned, and the reviewer asks for proof of the relationship or a statement that the funds are a gift or a loan. The account is not approved for trading until that mismatch is resolved.

The fix is to show the link between the payer and the account holder, so a marriage certificate, a birth certificate or a signed letter from the payer usually clears the flag. If the payment came from a joint account, a statement showing both names can be enough. If the payer is not a relative, the broker may ask for a source-of-funds declaration and may decline the deposit. The cleanest route is to fund from an account in your own name, because a matching name removes the question entirely and lets the deposit post without a separate review.

The mismatch matters because the broker has to know whose money is being used, not just whose name is on the trading account. A card in a different name, a GCash wallet registered to someone else or a bank transfer from a third party all create the same question: is this your money, and if not, what is the relationship? Answering that question with a document is faster than arguing about it. If you cannot show the link, the broker may return the funds to the source. Funding from your own GCash or bank account avoids the issue from the start.