How to check if a financial platform is registered

What does "registered" actually mean?

A registered or authorised firm has agreed to be supervised: it meets entry requirements, files information with a regulator and can be disciplined. FINRA notes that registration makes a firm's financial and disclosure information public and gives investors complaint routes. The CFTC adds that registered firms undergo background checks and face financial requirements and supervision.

What registration does not mean is just as important. FINRA warns that it does not guarantee an investment will perform well or that fraud cannot happen. FinCEN is blunter about its own list of money services businesses: inclusion is not a recommendation, certification of legitimacy, or endorsement by any government agency, and FinCEN does not verify what registrants submit.

Which register should you check?

Use the register that matches what the firm does for you. A single company can appear in several.

For the background on why US oversight is split, see SEC vs CFTC; for the EU licence, see MiCA explained.

How do you check a platform step by step?

1. Write down exactly what the platform does for you. Trading shares, offering futures or forex, giving advice, exchanging crypto and holding crypto are regulated differently, and each points to a different register.

2. Find the legal company name and its regulator. Look in the terms of service or website footer for the registered company name, its country and any registration or reference number. A brand name alone is not enough.

3. Search the official register yourself. Type the regulator's address into your browser rather than clicking a link the firm sent you, then search by company name and number: BrokerCheck, NFA BASIC, FinCEN's MSB search, the FCA Register or ESMA's MiCA register.

4. Check status and permissions, not just the name. Confirm the entry is current and covers the service you want. Watch for statuses such as no longer authorised, and note when a crypto firm is registered only for anti-money-laundering purposes.

5. Compare contact details. The website, phone number and email on the register should match the ones you are using. Different details are a sign of a clone firm impersonating a real one.

6. Search warning lists and disciplinary records. Look up the name on the FCA Warning List, the CFTC's RED list and the disclosures in BrokerCheck or BASIC. A firm missing from a warning list may still be unauthorised.

Repeat the check before you send money to any new platform — including one recommended by a friend or an online contact.

How do scammers fake registration?

A well-documented trick is the clone firm: fraudsters copy the name, address and even the registration number of a genuine authorised company, then give you their own phone number, email or website. The FCA's advice is to compare the contact details the firm gives you with those on the register and to use the register's details to get in touch.

Be wary, too, of a firm that cites registration with a body that does not oversee the service it is selling you — the mismatch the table above helps you spot. The CFTC keeps a Registration Deficient (RED) list of unregistered entities soliciting US customers. Scams in general are covered in common crypto scams and pig-butchering scams.

What happens if you use an unregistered platform?

You lose most of the safety nets. The FCA says customers of authorised firms can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service and may be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if the firm fails — routes that are not available with unauthorised firms. The CFTC notes that dealing with unregistered firms means fewer protections, including no access to its reparations programme or NFA arbitration.

Warning lists help, but they lag. The FCA warns that a firm absent from its Warning List may still be unauthorised or a scam, because fraudsters change names faster than regulators can publish them.

What mistakes do people make when checking registration?

• Trusting a licence number on the firm's own site. Anyone can type a number; only the regulator's register confirms it.
• Clicking the "verify our licence" link. It may lead to a fake copy of a register. Type the regulator's address yourself.
• Checking the name but not the contact details. That is exactly how clone firms get through.
• Checking the wrong register. Money-transmitter registration with FinCEN says nothing about investment advice or futures trading.
• Treating registration as a safety guarantee. Registered firms can still fail, and investments can still lose value.