How to check if a firm is FCA regulated (and why one-off checks aren't enough)

Whether you are a consumer choosing a financial adviser, a compliance officer onboarding a new counterparty, or a procurement team evaluating a supplier, the first question you should ask about any financial services firm in the UK is: is it authorised by the FCA?

Carrying on a regulated financial activity in the UK without authorisation or an exemption is a criminal offence, so most firms offering financial services must be authorised or registered. If you deal with an unauthorised firm, you will usually lose access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. For regulated firms, working with unauthorised counterparties can expose you to regulatory censure.

This guide explains how to check, what to look for, and why a single check is not enough.

Step 1: Use the FCA Financial Services Register

The FCA maintains the Financial Services Register – a public record of firms, individuals and other bodies that are, or have been, regulated by the FCA and the PRA. This is the definitive source for checking whether a firm is regulated.

How to search

1. Visit the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk
2. Search by firm name, individual name or Firm Reference Number (FRN)
3. Review the results carefully – firm names can be similar, so check that the registered address and FRN match the firm you are dealing with

What to check

When you find the firm on the register, check the following:

• Current status: Is the firm "Authorised" or "Registered"? Check that it has not been cancelled or suspended and is not "No longer authorised".
• Permissions: Does the firm have permission for the regulated activity it is carrying on for you? A firm with permission for insurance distribution is not necessarily permitted to advise on investments. Payment and e-money firms are authorised or registered under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 or the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 rather than holding a Part 4A permission, and the register shows the services they may provide.
• Dates: When did the firm's current status take effect? The register shows the date, and a recent change is worth asking about.
• Requirements: Has the FCA imposed requirements on the firm, or has the firm agreed any voluntarily? Requirements can restrict how a firm carries on its business even while it stays authorised.
• Disciplinary history: Has the FCA fined, censured or taken other action against the firm?
• Appointed representatives: If the firm says it operates as an appointed representative, check that its principal firm is authorised and that the appointment is listed on the register. An appointed representative is not itself authorised – it is exempt because its principal has accepted responsibility for it.

Step 2: Use the FCA's Firm Checker (for consumers)

The FCA also provides a simpler Firm Checker tool designed for consumers. This gives a straightforward answer about whether a firm is authorised and what it has permission to do. It is useful for quick checks but does not provide the full detail available on the Financial Services Register.

Step 3: Check the FCA Warning List

The FCA maintains a Warning List of firms and individuals it believes are operating without authorisation. If a firm appears on this list, do not deal with it.

However, the absence of a firm from the Warning List does not mean it is safe. Unauthorised firms frequently change their names, and the FCA cannot add firms to the list instantly. Always verify authorisation directly on the Financial Services Register.

What consumers should watch for

If you are a consumer checking whether your financial adviser, mortgage broker or investment firm is legitimate, here are the warning signs of an unauthorised or fraudulent firm:

• Contact details do not match the register. If the phone number, email or address you have been given differs from what appears on the Financial Services Register, the firm may be a clone – a scam operation that uses a legitimate firm's details.
• Pressure to act quickly. Legitimate FCA-authorised firms will not pressure you into making immediate decisions.
• Unsolicited contact. Be cautious of firms that contact you out of the blue offering investment opportunities or financial services.
• Returns that seem too good. If the promised returns are significantly higher than the market rate, it is likely a scam.

Why a one-off check is not enough

Here is where the story changes for compliance professionals. Checking the FCA register once – at onboarding – is a necessary first step, but it is not sufficient.

Regulatory status changes over time

A firm that is fully authorised today could have its permission varied, suspended or cancelled tomorrow. According to the FCA's enforcement data for 2024/25 (the year to 31 March 2025), the FCA:

• cancelled the authorisation of 1,456 firms
• issued 37 final notices and imposed fines of more than £186 million
• had 130 enforcement operations open at 31 March 2025

If your compliance process relies on a point-in-time check at onboarding, you will not discover these changes until your next periodic review – which could be months away.

Common changes that affect your business

The following changes on the FCA register can directly affect your business relationship with a firm:

• Permission varied or cancelled – the firm may no longer be permitted to carry on the activities that are relevant to your business
• Requirements imposed – the FCA may restrict what the firm can do, such as prohibiting it from taking on new business
• Enforcement action – a final notice, fine or public censure indicates serious regulatory failings
• Status changed – the firm may be "in administration", "in liquidation" or "no longer authorised"
• Appointed representative status changed – the principal may have ended the appointment

The regulatory expectation

The FCA expects regulated firms to keep their third-party relationships under review. Principle 3 requires a firm to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems. SYSC 8 requires firms that outsource critical or important functions to supervise the outsourced functions and manage the risks of the arrangement properly. Neither is a one-off exercise.

Periodic checks – monthly, quarterly or annual – create gaps. The longer the interval between checks, the greater the risk that a material change goes unnoticed.

How to move from one-off checks to ongoing monitoring

For compliance teams managing portfolios of 10, 50 or hundreds of regulated firms, manual periodic checking is the traditional approach. But it has well-documented limitations:

• It takes significant time. If a thorough check takes 15 to 25 minutes a firm, a list of 50 firms is roughly 12 to 20 hours of work each time you run it.
• It creates gaps. Monthly checks mean up to 30 days of exposure to changes you have not seen.
• It is prone to human error. Repetitive manual comparison across dozens of data points inevitably leads to missed changes.
• It produces weak audit trails. Spreadsheets do not automatically record what the register showed at each point in time.

Automated monitoring narrows the gap by checking the register for you on a fixed schedule – with Firmwatcher, every morning, plus FCA announcements within the hour – and alerting you when something new appears.

Firmwatcher checks the FCA register every morning for the firms and individuals you watch, reads FCA announcements hourly, and emails you when a new requirement or disciplinary action appears. Start a 14-day trial or book a demo to see how it works.