How to check a broker's licence in five minutes

Almost every retail broker’s website carries a line of small print in the footer naming a regulator and a licence number. That line is a claim, not proof. The only thing that settles it is the regulator’s own public register, and checking it takes less time than opening an account.

This is the routine we follow at GTO when a firm enters our coverage. It works for most major regulators and needs nothing more than a browser.

Step one: find the exact legal entity

Scroll to the footer or the legal documents page and note three things: the full legal name of the company, the licence or reference number, and the regulator named. Brokers often operate several companies under one brand, each licensed in a different place. The entity that matters is the one named in the client agreement you would actually sign, not the one mentioned most prominently on the home page.

If the site gives a brand name but no legal entity or number, stop there. A firm that will not tell you who you are contracting with has answered your question already.

Step two: search the regulator’s register directly

Type the regulator’s address into your browser yourself. Do not follow a link from the broker’s site, because a fake register page is an easy thing to build. The main registers include:

• United Kingdom: the FCA’s Firm Checker and the Financial Services Register, searchable by firm name or Firm Reference Number.
• Cyprus: CySEC’s list of Cyprus Investment Firms, which shows licence numbers, plus a separate list of approved domains for each firm.
• Australia: ASIC’s Professional Registers Search, which confirms whether a company holds an Australian financial services licence.
• South Africa: the FSCA’s search facility for authorised financial services providers, by FSP number.
• Dubai International Financial Centre: the DFSA Public Register of authorised firms and individuals.

Check that the status reads as currently authorised, not cancelled, suspended or lapsed. Then check what the firm is permitted to do. A licence to arrange deals or give advice is not the same as permission to deal as principal or to hold client money.

Step three: match the details, not just the name

Scammers copy real firms. The FCA calls these clone firms: operations that borrow a genuine firm’s name, address and reference number and then give victims their own phone numbers, emails and websites. The FCA’s advice is to compare the contact details you have been given against those on its register, and to contact the firm only through the details listed there.

Apply the same test everywhere. The register entry should match the legal name in the client agreement exactly, the website should appear among the domains the regulator lists where it publishes them (CySEC does), and the phone numbers and addresses should line up. Where they differ, treat the firm as unverified until the regulator confirms otherwise.

The entity that matters is the one named in the client agreement you would actually sign.

Step four: search the warning lists

Regulators publish warnings about unauthorised firms, and a search takes seconds. The FCA runs a Warning List, CySEC publishes investor warnings, and many other authorities do the same.

Since March 2025 there has also been a single place to look across borders. The International Organization of Securities Commissions launched I-SCAN, the International Securities and Commodities Alerts Network, which pulls together alerts from its member regulators about firms operating without authorisation, including clones. A clean result is not an endorsement, since a new scam may not have been flagged yet, but a hit is a clear reason to walk away.

What an offshore licence does and does not mean

Many brands onboard international clients through companies registered in smaller jurisdictions. The protections that come with those entities vary enormously, and some registrations carry no conduct supervision at all.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is the clearest example. Its Financial Services Authority and Financial Intelligence Unit have published a joint advisory stating that forex trading is not regulated there and that no forex trading licences are issued. A company registered there may be perfectly legitimate as a company, but that registration does not make it a regulated broker.

Other offshore regimes do license and supervise brokers, with rules that are usually lighter than those in the UK, EU or Australia. Leverage caps, negative balance protection, compensation schemes and complaint routes that apply to a firm’s onshore entity generally do not follow a client who is signed up to its offshore sister company. Read which entity you are being assigned to before you fund the account.

The five-minute checklist

• Note the legal entity, licence number and regulator from the client agreement.
• Open the regulator’s register yourself and confirm current authorisation.
• Check the permissions match the service you are buying.
• Compare website, phone and address against the register.
• Search the regulator’s warning list and IOSCO I-SCAN.

None of this guarantees a good broker. It does establish that you are dealing with the firm you think you are, supervised by the regulator it names, which is the minimum any trader should expect.