Look the broker up on the register of the regulator in your country, using the firm's exact legal name, and check that the website address on the register matches the one you are using. A licence number shown on a broker's own website proves nothing until the register confirms it. The Safety Check also compares any name against the warning lists of 26 regulators.

It means that regulator has published a notice that the firm is not authorised to offer its services in that jurisdiction, or has taken action against it. A warning is not a court finding, but dealing with an unauthorised firm usually means no complaints service, no compensation scheme and no regulator supervising how your money is held.

A clone firm copies the name, address or licence details of a genuine, authorised firm to win trust. Regulators' clone warnings name the real firm being imitated, so the Safety Check never gives that genuine broker a "Not recommended" verdict because of a clone warning. Always reach a broker through the website listed on the regulator's register.

Not necessarily. Regulators say their lists are not exhaustive, so a firm's absence from a list is not a sign of authorisation. Check the register in your country before you deposit.

A firm on a regulator's warning list is "Not recommended", whatever its licences or score. A broker we review is "Top-tier regulated" when it holds a Tier 1 licence and scores at least 4.0/5 on safety, "Use caution" when it falls short of that, and "Not recommended" when it has no recognised licence and scores below 3.0.

It holds 234 alerts about 130 firms from 26 regulators. Every alert links to the regulator's own notice, and each was last checked against that notice in Sept 2026 or later.