How to check if a broker is regulated (country-by-country guide)
The most important question before investing is not how much you will earn, but who holds your money and who supervises them. In almost every country, offering investment services without authorisation is illegal. Checking is free and takes two minutes.
Step 1: find the company’s legal name
Fraudulent platforms use catchy brand names (“Quantum AI”, “Trade X”…), but what you need to check is the company behind them. Look in:
- The website footer (often “XYZ Ltd, registered in…”).
- The terms and conditions or legal notice.
- Any contract or emails they have sent you.
If you cannot find a company name, address or registration number, you already have your answer: do not invest.
Step 2: search your regulator’s register
| Country | Regulator | Where to check |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | FCA | register.fca.org.uk |
| United States | SEC / FINRA | brokercheck.finra.org |
| Canada | CSA | aretheyregistered.ca |
| Australia | ASIC | asic.gov.au |
| Ireland | Central Bank of Ireland | registers.centralbank.ie |
| New Zealand | FMA | fma.govt.nz |
| South Africa | FSCA | fsca.co.za |
| Singapore | MAS | mas.gov.sg |
| Nigeria | SEC Nigeria | sec.gov.ng |
| Ghana | SEC Ghana | sec.gov.gh |
If your country is not listed, IOSCO’s I-SCAN search gathers warnings from regulators worldwide.
Step 3: check the warning lists too
Regulators publish lists of unauthorised firms. If a platform appears there, that is conclusive. If it does not, that does not mean it is safe: scams change their names faster than regulators can issue warnings. That is why InvestRedFlags exists: search the platform here in case we have already detected it in ads.
Fake broker tricks
- “We are regulated”… somewhere else. They claim a licence in an offshore jurisdiction (St Vincent and the Grenadines, Vanuatu, Comoros, Seychelles…). Some of these do not even supervise trading. And a licence elsewhere usually does not authorise them to take clients in your country.
- Fake or borrowed licence numbers. They copy a real broker’s number. Check that the name, website and domain in the register match the platform exactly.
- Cloned websites. They imitate legitimate brokers by changing one letter of the domain. Check the web address listed in the regulator’s own register.
- A “personal advisor” who calls you. A regulated broker does not cold-call you to pressure you into depositing more.
Quick checklist before depositing
- I know the company’s legal name and country of registration.
- It appears on my regulator’s register, with the same website.
- It is not on any warning list.
- I did not find it through an ad featuring a celebrity.
- Nobody is pressuring me to invest quickly or asking me to install software.
If you have already deposited money with a platform that fails these checks, follow our victim guide and ask your bank for a chargeback as soon as possible.