ForexBroker selection
How to check a broker's legal entity
Most large brokers run several companies in different countries, each with its own licence and rules. The protections you get depend on which one holds your account, not on the best licence shown on the homepage.
Step by step
- Find the company name. It is in your client agreement and usually in the website footer, for example "Example Markets (EU) Ltd".
- Find its regulator and licence number in the same documents.
- Search the regulator's own register, not a link from the broker's site. Use the FCA Register (UK), ASIC Professional Register (Australia) or the CySEC entity list (Cyprus).
- Match the details: company name, licence number, permitted activities and the website domains listed.
- Check warning lists for clone firms that copy a real company's name and number.
Regulator
Where to search
Compensation if a firm fails
FCA (UK)
FCA Financial Services Register
FSCS, up to £85,000
CySEC (Cyprus)
CySEC regulated entities list
Investor Compensation Fund, up to €20,000
ASIC (Australia)
ASIC Professional Register
No statutory scheme for broker clients
Offshore (e.g. Seychelles, Bahamas)
Local regulator website
Usually none
Red flags
✕The licence number on the register belongs to a different company or website.
✕You are moved to an offshore entity to get higher leverage or a bonus.
✕The firm asks you to pay by crypto or to a personal bank account.
✕Contact details on the register differ from the ones the firm gives you.
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