How to Verify a Broker's Regulation

Any website can display a regulator's logo. Logos are images, not proof. The only way to confirm a broker is genuinely regulated is to go to the regulator's own official website and search its public register directly, using the license or registration number the broker claims to hold, not a number copied from the broker's own marketing page in isolation.

Each major regulator maintains a free, searchable public register. The FCA has the Financial Services Register, ASIC has its Connect register and AFS licence search, and CySEC publishes a list of licensed Cyprus Investment Firms. Go to the regulator's domain yourself by typing it in rather than clicking a link on the broker's site, since a fake page can mimic a real register. Search by the firm's legal name (which is often different from its trading brand name) and by the license number, and confirm the entity listed matches the entity you'd actually be signing an agreement with — not a similarly-named affiliate in a different, weaker jurisdiction.

Pay close attention to the legal entity you are actually onboarded to. Many brokers operate multiple entities in different countries, and it's common for the well-regulated entity (say, FCA-regulated) to serve clients from certain regions while clients from other regions are quietly onboarded to a much less regulated offshore entity under the same brand name. The website may show the FCA badge while your actual account agreement is with an entity regulated somewhere with far weaker protections. Check the terms and conditions or account opening documents for the specific entity name and registered address, then verify that entity, not the brand.

If a broker's number doesn't appear on the register, appears under a different company name, or the register shows a warning against the firm, treat that as a hard stop, not a minor discrepancy to explain away. Legitimate regulators also publish public warning lists of firms falsely claiming their authorization — checking that list takes two minutes and can save you from a broker that isn't really regulated at all.