Video · Platforms

Is this platform authorised? How to check

The five checks of the platform guide, worked through on ExampleTrade, a made-up platform: find the legal entity, match the service to the register, tell a registration from an authorisation, search the warning lists and use the contact details on the register. No sound: the text is on screen and in the transcript below. The facts are those of the platform guide, reviewed 2 November 2026. Download the video (MP4, 6.4 MB).

In this video

Transcript

The video has no voice-over. This is the text it shows, chapter by chapter. ExampleTrade and Example Markets Ltd are made up.

0:00 · Is this platform authorised?: Trading, investment and crypto platforms. Is this platform authorised? How to check, in five steps.
0:05 · What the website claims: A made-up example: ExampleTrade, at exampletrade.example. Its website says “Licensed”, “Regulated” and “Registered with FinCEN”. Its footer reads: “ExampleTrade is a trading name of Example Markets Ltd, registration no. 00000000. Registered with FinCEN as a money services business.” The website says “registered”. That is not the same as authorised.
0:11 · Step 1: the legal entity: Start with the company, not the brand. Its legal name, registration number and regulator are usually in the footer or the terms. Search the register by that number, not by the brand. A platform that names no legal entity cannot be checked.
0:20 · Step 2: match the service to the register: Each service needs its own authorisation. Investments, CFDs and forex: in the UK, the FCA Financial Services Register; in the US, FINRA BrokerCheck, the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) and NFA BASIC; in the EU and EEA, the national authority’s register (MiFID II). Crypto-assets: in the EU and EEA, ESMA’s interim MiCA register; in the UK, FCA registration, for anti-money-laundering only; in the US, FinCEN registration, and state licences (NMLS).
0:31 · Step 3: a registration is not an authorisation: Registered is not authorised. A company register shows the company was incorporated; it is not a financial licence. FinCEN does not license or vet what registrants provide to its register of money services businesses. An anti-money-laundering registration covers that supervision only, not investments. In FinCEN’s words, inclusion in its register “is not a recommendation, certification of legitimacy, or endorsement”.
0:44 · Step 4: the warning lists: Search the warning lists for the brand, the legal name and the website address: I-SCAN (IOSCO, worldwide), the Warning List (FCA, UK), the PAUSE list (SEC, US) and the RED List (CFTC, US). Absence is not evidence: a platform that is not on a warning list has not been cleared.
0:53 · Step 5: the contact details: Use the contact details on the register. Some unauthorised firms copy an authorised firm’s name and register number, then add their own website, email or phone. The FCA calls them clone firms. Contact a firm only through the details on the regulator’s register.
1:00 · What an authorisation does not tell you: What an authorisation does not tell you. That the firm will behave well: it is no guarantee of conduct, solvency or any return. That you are protected: compensation schemes and ombudsmen cover some services, not others. That an unlisted firm is unauthorised: it may be authorised elsewhere, or under another name.
1:07 · Search the registers: Search the registers in one place: each firm’s register entries, their level and status, and the date each register was retrieved, at elucidate.co/directory. The full guide is at elucidate.co/guides/check-trading-crypto-platform.

Search the tracked registers in one place. The directory shows each firm’s register entries, their level and status, and the date each register was retrieved.

Search firms

Sources

Check whether a trading or crypto platform is authorised. Elucidate guide, reviewed 2 November 2026: the text this video follows, with links to every register and list it names.
MSB Registrant Search. US Treasury, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
International Securities & Commodities Alerts Network (I-SCAN). International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).
Warning List of unauthorised firms. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

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