Every broker comparison is worthless without one skill: checking the licence yourself. Regulators publish registers precisely so traders do not have to trust homepages. In the UK, the FCA Financial Services Register lets anyone search a firm name or reference number, confirm the legal entity, and verify what it is actually permitted to do. The same principle applies everywhere: find the licence number, match it to the register, match the register to your account entity. Five minutes of checking beats five months of chargeback fights. The brokers in our binary comparison, CFD giants and challengers pieces all submit to the same test. Source: UK guide.
The three-match rule
Match one: the licence number on the broker's site against the regulator's own register, character for character. Match two: the registered entity name against the company named in your client agreement and deposit details. Match three: the permission scope against what you were sold, since a payments licence is not a brokerage licence and an offshore entity is not the European one. RoboMarkets' verifiable CySEC licence 191/13 shows what a checkable claim looks like: number, regulator, searchable. Any broker that makes these three matches hard is answering your question. The Warsaw exits show why entity clarity matters when people change. Source: Myfxbook reviews.
Red flags that fail the test
Licence numbers that do not appear in any register. Registers that show a different company name than your agreement. Support that cannot name your account entity without checking. Bonus terms that lock withdrawals behind turnover you were never shown. Review patterns where withdrawals work until size grows. None of these individually convicts a broker, but two together should stop any deposit. Document everything before funding: screenshots of the licence page, the register entry, and the terms version you accepted. The copy-trading risks add a fourth check for mirrored strategies. Source: TradersUnion reviews.
- Search the regulator's own register first
- Match licence, entity and permissions
- CySEC 191/13 shows a checkable claim
- Two red flags stop any deposit
What to do before every deposit
Run the three-match check, screenshot the evidence, start with the minimum deposit, test a withdrawal early while amounts are small, and keep a log of every promise support makes. If a broker passes all of this, it has earned a funded trial, not your trust. Trust accrues in withdrawals, quarterly statements and years, never in homepages. Share this checklist with anyone comparing platforms this week.
Regulators built the register so you would not need to trust anyone. Use it, or donate the tuition.
The bigger picture
Retail trading's fraud problem is mostly a verification problem: victims fund entities nobody checked. Registers, agreements and withdrawal tests form a verification stack anyone can run free in minutes. An industry where every trader ran it would starve every scam broker within a year.
What to watch next
Watch regulators expand register data with execution and complaint stats. Watch brokers compete on verifiability as a feature. And watch your own paperwork, because the trader with screenshots wins every dispute.
How do I check a broker's licence?
Search the regulator's own register for the licence number, match the registered entity to your client agreement and deposit details, and confirm the permission scope covers brokerage, using tools like the UK FCA Financial Services Register.
What are the biggest red flags?
Licence numbers missing from registers, entity mismatches, support that cannot name your entity, withdrawal-locking bonuses, and withdrawals that fail as size grows. Two together should stop any deposit.
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