Before you deposit a cent: is this broker actually regulated? How to verify a broker or exchange holds a real licence — on the regulator’s own register, not its own marketing

By Daniel Acosta · Updated 6 July 2026 · 9 min read

A slick website, a “licensed and regulated” badge in the footer, a licence number in small print — none of that tells you a firm is real. The only thing that does is looking the firm up on the regulator’s own public register and confirming the details match. This guide shows you how to do that check, which regulators to know, and the warning signs that mean you should close the tab. It is not a recommendation of any firm; it is a routine you run before you trust anyone with your money.

Quick version

Regulation is not a marketing word — it is a legal status you can verify in a couple of minutes. A properly regulated broker or exchange is authorised by a named financial authority, appears on that authority’s public register under a specific legal entity, and is bound by rules on how it holds client money and handles complaints. To check, find the licence number, look it up on the regulator’s own website, and confirm the entity name and the website on the register match the firm in front of you. If you can’t find it, if the details don’t line up, or if the firm is only registered somewhere offshore with no oversight where you live, treat that as a stop sign — not a formality to skip.

Why regulation matters before anything else

People check the rate, the fees and the app’s star rating before they check whether the firm is regulated. That is backwards. If a firm turns out to be unlicensed or fraudulent, none of the rest matters — you may simply never see your money again. Regulation is the layer that decides whether the other layers are worth reading at all, which is why it belongs first in the routine.

What regulation actually buys you comes down to three things. First, segregated client funds: a regulated firm generally has to keep your money in accounts separate from its own, so that if the business fails, client money isn’t simply part of the wreckage. Second, a route for disputes: there is a named authority you can complain to, and in some jurisdictions a compensation scheme that may cover part of a loss if a regulated firm collapses. Third, conduct and capital rules, including limits on how much leverage retail clients can be offered — caps that exist precisely because uncapped leverage wiped a lot of people out. (For why that cap matters, see leverage and risk.)

None of this guarantees a profit or protects you from your own losing trades. What it does is put a supervised, accountable entity on the other side of the table instead of an anonymous one. That distinction is the whole point.

Regulators worth knowing

You don’t need to memorise every authority on earth, but it helps to recognise the main ones and roughly what they cover. When a firm claims to be regulated, the first question is always: by whom, and does that authority actually oversee services to people in my country?

Two practical notes. A licence from a well-known authority only helps you if it covers the service being offered to you, where you live — a firm regulated in one country isn’t automatically allowed to take clients everywhere. And a registration in a jurisdiction with little or no meaningful oversight is not the same as being regulated in any protective sense, however impressive the certificate looks. The name of the authority matters as much as the fact that one is named at all.

How to actually check the register

Here is the check itself. It works the same way for almost any regulated firm, and it takes only a few minutes.

1. Find the firm’s stated regulator and licence (or registration) number. Reputable firms usually show these in the website footer or an “About / Legal” page, along with the full legal entity name.
2. Go to the regulator’s own website directly — type the address yourself or use a trusted search, don’t click a link the firm supplied. Every major authority runs a public register or firm-search tool.
3. Search the register by the licence number and by the legal entity name. Confirm the record exists and that its status is active or authorised, not lapsed, restricted or withdrawn.
4. Match the details. The legal entity name, the permitted activities and the official website listed on the register should match what the firm tells you. A mismatch — even a slightly different company name — is a warning, not a rounding error.
5. Check for warnings. Many regulators publish lists of unauthorised firms and known clones. Search the firm’s name there too, before you commit anything.

Clone firms and the entity-name trap

The nastiest trick in this space is the clone firm. Fraudsters copy a genuine regulated company’s name, licence number and address, then set up a near-identical website on a slightly different domain and solicit deposits. Because the licence number they quote is real, a lazy check — “the number exists on the register, done” — passes them straight through.

The defence is to match the whole record, not just the number, and the piece people skip is the legal entity name. Registers index the exact incorporated company, so the name on the record has to be the name of the firm in front of you, character for character. This is why the legal entity matters so much: “BrandName Ltd” and “BrandName Global LLC” are different companies, incorporated in different places, and only one of them may hold the licence you’re relying on. A real number attached to the wrong entity is exactly the gap a clone lives in, so confirm the country of incorporation and the permitted activities on the record line up with the firm too, not just the number.

Red flags to walk away from

Some warning signs are reliable enough that any one of them is reason to stop and look harder — and several together is reason to leave.

• No licence shown, or a vague one. “Regulated” with no named authority and no number is a claim about nothing. A real firm tells you exactly who authorises it.
• Offshore-only registration. A firm licensed solely in a jurisdiction with little oversight, and not authorised where you live, gives you almost no recourse if things go wrong.
• Pressure and urgency. “Deposit today,” “this bonus expires in an hour,” a pushy account manager rushing you past the checks — legitimate firms don’t need you to hurry.
• Guaranteed or fixed returns. No one can promise a return in a market that moves. “Guaranteed profit,” “risk-free,” or a suspiciously steady payout is the oldest tell there is.
• Odd payment routes. Requests to deposit to a personal account, in crypto to an unverified wallet, or via gift cards or a “different” processor sit far outside how a regulated firm handles client money.
• Details that don’t match the register. A different company name, domain or address than the official record — covered above, and worth repeating, because it’s the crux of the whole check.

The same check for crypto exchanges

The logic transfers straight across to crypto exchanges, with one honest caveat: the rules are newer, less uniform, and still settling in many countries. In some places an exchange must register with or be licensed by a financial authority; in others the framework is only now taking shape. So the shape of the check is the same — find out what registration or licence the platform holds where you are, verify it on the relevant authority’s own site, and read the platform’s terms rather than assuming a broker-style safety net exists.

Practically, that means treating an exchange’s registrations and terms as something to confirm at the source, on its own official page, before you sign up or move money — the same way you’d verify a broker on a regulator’s register. If you’re looking at one, check Binance’s own registrations and terms on its official page and confirm what applies in your country before you decide. Whatever platform you choose, the principle doesn’t change: verify at the source, and never share your password, 2FA code or recovery phrase with anyone, ever.

How to actually search a regulator’s register, step by step

The five-step routine above is the shape of the check. The mechanics of the search itself are where people slip. A register only tells you the truth if you query it correctly, and the failure mode is usually a search that returns nothing (so you assume the firm is fine) or a near-match (so you assume you’ve found it). Neither assumption is safe.

1. Pick the right regulator for the country and the product. A firm may hold one licence for spot FX and none for the crypto product it’s pushing at you, or a licence in one country and no permission to serve yours. Start from where you live and what you’re actually buying, then find the authority that covers that combination — not the most impressive-sounding name in the footer.
2. Search by the full legal entity name and the licence number. Type the number exactly, and search the legal name in full — “Acme Markets Limited,” not the brand “Acme.” Trading brands and legal entities often differ, and the register indexes the legal one. If the number and the name don’t both land on the same record, you haven’t confirmed anything yet.
3. Match the exact entity, not a similar one. Registers routinely list several companies with almost the same name. Read the record you land on rather than the first result: the country of incorporation, the registered address, the permitted activities. “Acme Markets Ltd” holding a UK licence tells you nothing about “Acme Markets (Global) LLC,” which may be a different company entirely.
4. Read the permissions and the status, not just the fact a record exists. A record can be present but the status lapsed, restricted or withdrawn; the permissions can cover advising but not holding client money. Confirm the status is current and that the specific service you’re about to use is inside what the firm is actually allowed to do.
5. Screenshot what you found. Capture the register page — entity name, number, status, the official website it lists — with the date visible. It costs seconds, gives you a record of what the register said on the day you checked, and gives you something concrete to point to if the firm’s details later drift from it.

If the search comes back empty, resist the urge to read that as clearance. Try the number and the name separately, and check you’re on the correct authority’s register for the service. A genuine firm is findable; a blank result is a reason to keep looking, not to relax.

Clone firms: the scam that copies a real licence

The clone firm is the one scam engineered to survive a half-hearted check, and it’s worth seeing the mechanics up close. The fake site typically lives on a domain a character or two off the real one, or reaches you at an unrelated address the fraudster emails you directly, while the licence number it quotes checks out because it belongs to the legitimate firm. The check appears to pass, and that appearance is the whole product.

What exposes the clone is the material the fraudster can’t change: the contact details on the regulator’s own record. The register lists the authorised firm’s official domain, phone and email. The clone, by definition, reaches you through a different channel — a lookalike domain, a personal email, a messaging app, an ad. The tell isn’t the licence number; it’s the gap between where the register says the firm lives and where you were actually sent.

• Verify from the regulator’s site, never from a link the firm hands you. Type the authority’s address yourself. A “verification link” in an email or chat can point to a page the fraudster controls, dressed up to look official.
• Compare the official domain letter by letter. Clones live on near-misses — an added word, a different top-level domain, a swapped character. If the site you’re on isn’t the exact domain on the register, stop.
• Reach the firm through the register’s contact details. Use the phone and email the authority lists, not the ones you were given. If the real firm has never heard of your “account,” you have your answer.
• Check the regulator’s warning list. Many authorities publish named clone-firm alerts. The firm you’re looking at may already be on one.

What a licence does and doesn’t protect

A licence is worth verifying, but it’s easy to read more into it than it carries. It’s a floor of accountability, not a warranty on the outcome — and knowing exactly where that floor ends keeps you from a false sense of safety once you’ve confirmed it.

On the protective side, regulation typically provides a handful of concrete things. Client money is usually held in segregated accounts, separate from the firm’s own funds, so it isn’t simply swept up if the business fails. There is a complaints and dispute route — a named authority, and often an independent ombudsman — that you can escalate to when the firm won’t resolve something. In some jurisdictions a compensation scheme may cover part of a loss if a regulated firm collapses, within defined limits. And retail clients usually get leverage caps and conduct rules that exist to stop the worst mismatches between what a firm offers and what a customer understands.

What a licence never does is insulate you from the market or from yourself. It won’t give you back money lost on a trade that moved against you — that’s the risk you took, and no regulator refunds it. It won’t override a decision you made freely, however much you regret it. And it offers no defence at all if you hand over the keys: share your password, your 2FA code or your recovery phrase and you’ve authorised the loss yourself, which puts it outside anything a regulator or a compensation scheme is designed to cover. The licence supervises the firm; it doesn’t supervise your account for you.

Offshore and unregulated venues: the trade-offs

Not every platform without a familiar licence is a scam, and it’s worth being clear-eyed rather than alarmist about why some operate the way they do. Some are registered in light-touch jurisdictions for ordinary reasons — lower cost, faster setup, fewer restrictions on products or leverage they can offer. That last point is often the actual draw: things a stricter regulator caps or bans, a lighter one may permit.

The trade-off is what you give up in exchange. Where oversight is thin, so is your recourse. If funds go missing, if withdrawals stall, if the terms change under you, there may be no authority with real power over the firm and no compensation scheme standing behind it. Client-money segregation may be a promise on a page rather than a supervised requirement. The dispute route that a licensed firm has to give you can simply not exist. None of that is hidden, exactly — it’s the structural consequence of operating outside a strict framework — but it’s rarely spelled out in the marketing.

This isn’t a verdict on any particular venue; plenty of people use offshore platforms with their eyes open. The point is to make the swap consciously — understand what protections you’re trading away, size your exposure to match, and decide from that rather than from a footer badge. If a platform’s only registration is somewhere with no oversight over services where you live, treat that as a fact to weigh, not a detail to skim.

Questions people ask

Does being regulated mean my money is guaranteed safe?
No. Regulation lowers certain risks — it usually means client funds are held separately, that there is an authority to complain to, and that the firm has to meet capital and conduct rules. It does not guarantee you a profit, protect you from your own trading losses, or make the firm immune from failure. It shifts the odds; it does not remove the risk.

What is a clone firm and how do I avoid one?
A clone firm is a scam that copies the name, licence number and details of a genuine regulated company to look legitimate. To avoid one, always find the contact details — website, phone, email — on the regulator’s own register rather than trusting what the firm sends you, and check that the domain and legal entity match exactly. Many regulators publish live warning lists of known clones.

Do crypto exchanges have to be regulated the same way?
It varies by country, and the rules are newer and less uniform than for FX brokers. In some places exchanges must register or be licensed; in others the framework is still forming. Check what registration or licence an exchange holds in your own jurisdiction on the relevant authority’s site, and read the platform’s own terms — don’t assume the same protections apply as with a licensed broker.

A firm shows a licence number — is that enough?
No. A number printed on a website proves nothing on its own; scammers copy real ones. The check is to look that number up on the regulator’s own public register, confirm it is active, and confirm the legal entity name and website on the register match the firm you’re dealing with. If any part doesn’t line up, treat it as unverified.

Last updated 6 July 2026. This guide explains how to verify that a broker or exchange is regulated; it is not investment, tax or legal advice, and it is not a recommendation of any firm. Rules, registers and available protections differ by country — check your local regulator. Licence status can change — always confirm the current record on the regulator’s own site before you act.

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