How to check whether a broker is regulated

A brand on a website is not a regulatory status. The check is whether a named legal entity is on the register of the regulator it claims, with permission for the service it is offering, and whether the phone number, address and domain you were given belong to that entry. This guide follows the FCA’s own consumer pages as they stood on 10 November 2026, then points at the CySEC and ASIC registers for firms that claim those permissions. It is not a list of firms to use.

You do not need an account to do this. If a site asks for a deposit before it will tell you the legal entity, stop and use the public register. A later look at charts or order tickets belongs on a demo account, after the register check, not instead of it.

The broker directory stores a UK FCA entity only where the firm’s own pages name one, and it links the register search the firm or the directory is pointing at. Those links are a starting point. The register is the current document.

Write down the legal entity

Start from the client agreement or the regulatory disclosure on the firm’s own site. Write down the company name, the country of that company, and any firm reference number (FRN) it prints. Many brands sit on more than one company. The company that would hold the account is the one that has to be on the register.

The IG page in this directory is an example of that record, not a suggestion to open an account. It records two UK entities named on IG’s own pages, IG Index Limited (FRN 114059) and IG Markets Limited (FRN 195355), each with a link to a Financial Services Register search. The directory’s last check of that page is on the broker entry. Status changes, so the register search is the page to read.

Use the FCA Firm Checker first

The FCA’s page on how to check a firm or individual is authorised, last updated by the FCA on 22 September 2026 and read for this guide on 10 November 2026, says to use the FCA Firm Checker before buying a financial product or service. Type the address yourself. The FCA’s clone-firm page says to check that the address really is the FCA’s, because a lookalike domain is one of the tricks it describes.

The Firm Checker reports whether a firm is authorised and whether it has permission for the service you select. The FCA’s own wording is that if a firm is not authorised, or does not have permission for the service you want, you should avoid dealing with it. Being authorised reduces the risk of harm. The same page says it does not remove all risk.

Two limits are set out on the Firm Checker page itself. It cannot confirm that Financial Services Compensation Scheme or Financial Ombudsman Service protection will apply. It also leaves out some of the record on purpose, including products the firm offers only to other firms or professional clients, some published restrictions on crypto activity, historic fines, the right to approve financial promotions, and the ability to handle client money. Those are on the Financial Services Register. The Firm Checker page says information may, on average, take 24 hours to update, and that some of what you see was sent in by firms.

“Authorised” and “registered” are not the same on that FCA page. Authorised means the firm must meet certain standards and has permission to provide certain products. Registered means the firm must meet certain requirements but cannot provide regulated products that need authorisation. The FCA says that if you use a firm that is registered but not authorised, you are unlikely to have FSCS protection if it goes out of business, or access to the Ombudsman if you want to complain.

Read the Financial Services Register

The Financial Services Register is the public record of firms, individuals and other bodies that are, or have been, authorised by the FCA or the PRA. Search it from register.fca.org.uk by the legal name or the FRN. The FCA’s how-to-check page says this is where to look for historic fines, the right to approve financial promotions, the ability to handle client money, and whether the firm was authorised when a product was first bought.

Read the status line. On that same FCA page, “No longer authorised” means the firm cancelled its authorisation, for example because it stopped the regulated activity. “Revoked” means the authorisation was cancelled after enforcement action. In both cases the firm can no longer carry out regulated financial activities, and the FCA says you should avoid dealing with it. Those firms do not appear on the Firm Checker unless they are authorised again. The disciplinary record on the firm’s register page is where the FCA points you for the reason a permission was revoked.

Also read the permissions, not only the word “authorised”. A permission to do one activity is not a permission to do another. Client-money wording on the register is about how the firm may hold money. It does not stop a trading loss.

If the entry is an appointed representative, the FCA says the firm is carrying on activity for another firm, the principal. The principal agrees what the representative may do and is responsible for that business. If the representative goes beyond what the principal allowed, the FCA says you may not be protected by the Ombudsman or the FSCS. The principal’s contact details are on the Firm Checker and the Register. Ask the principal what was agreed. Payment-services and e-money agents are a further category on the same page, with their own limit: the FCA says that if the agent fails, the money is not protected by the FSCS.

Not every individual at a firm is on the register. The FCA says checking the firm’s permissions is the more useful check, and that FCA staff are not listed on the Firm Checker or the Register.

Match the details, then search the Warning List

Clone firms are described on the FCA’s clone firms page. A clone copies a genuine firm. It may use the real name, address or FRN, change a phone number, or claim that the contact details on the Firm Checker are out of date. The FCA says that claim is unlikely, because both the Firm Checker and the Register are updated, on average, every 24 hours. Compare the details you were given with the details on the Firm Checker. If there are no contact details, or the firm tells you the register is stale, the clone-firm page gives the FCA’s number, 0800 111 6768.

The Warning List is the list of unauthorised firms and individuals the FCA is concerned about. The how-to-check page says a warning the FCA has published will also appear when you search the Firm Checker and the Register. The Warning List page says the FCA adds names as soon as it can, and that a firm which is not on the list may still be unauthorised or a scam, because names change and the FCA may not know yet. Absence from the list is not a clearance. If you cannot find a firm on the Firm Checker, the Warning List page gives the same 0800 111 6768 number.

Contact details on the register are provided and confirmed by the firm. The how-to-check page says most authorised firms must update or confirm them at least once a year, and that you can see whether that has been done. Principal firms do it for their appointed representatives.

Other regulators are separate registers

A CySEC permission is not an FCA permission. CySEC describes itself as the supervisory authority for the investment-services market in Cyprus. Cypriot investment firms are published on CySEC’s investment firms list. When this guide was reviewed, that page headed the list “CIF regulated entities list as of 10 March 2025”. Read the date on the page, because it moves, and read the licence number against the legal entity in your documents. The same section of CySEC’s site has a list of former Cypriot investment firms and a list of approved domains. Open those from CySEC’s own menu. A domain that is not on the approved list is not something this guide can clear.

An ASIC permission is an Australian financial services licence, or an authorisation from someone who holds one. ASIC’s professional registers search lets you search by name, licence number, ACN or ABN, and it shows status, conditions and, for an AFS licensee, website addresses. ASIC says the registers are processed once a day. Moneysmart’s check before you invest page says a licence does not mean ASIC endorses the firm or the product, and it does not mean you cannot lose money. It also says scammers reuse real licence numbers, so the name and the number on the register have to match the firm you are dealing with, and any website on the register has to match the site you are using.

ESMA is not a substitute for the home regulator. A firm authorised in another country is checked on that country’s register. Passporting, or a brand that also has an FCA entity, does not make every company in the group FCA-authorised. Read the company named on the account.

This check tells you whether a permission exists and what the regulator’s public record says. It does not say that the firm’s prices, platform or service are suitable. The retail conduct rules that apply once an account is a UK retail CFD, spread bet or rolling spot account are a different document, COBS 22.5, and they are described in UK spread betting and CFDs.

This guide is for education and reference only. It is not financial, investment, tax, or trading advice, and it does not recommend a firm, product, or strategy. It does not provide signals, rankings, or profit claims. Contracts for difference, spread bets, and other leveraged products can lose money quickly. Worked figures are illustrations from the cited sources, or arithmetic on those figures. Where a guide asks you to look at a platform, use a demo account.