Which Company Actually Holds Your Trading Account? How to Find Out in Five Minutes

A broker's homepage might say "regulated by the FCA, ASIC and CySEC". That can be true and still tell you nothing about your own account. Most large brokers are groups: a UK company, an Australian company, a Cypriot company and one or more offshore companies. Which one you deal with depends on where you live, and sometimes on which website you signed up through.

Your protection comes from the company that holds your money. Not from the group's best licence.

The short answer

Open your client agreement (sometimes called terms of business or customer agreement) and find the paragraph that names "the Company". That legal name, plus the registration or licence number next to it, is your counterparty. Then search for that exact name on the regulator's register.

Step by step

1. Find the agreement. It is linked at sign-up and usually in the footer of the client portal under Legal or Documents. Download the version you accepted.
2. Copy the full legal name, including "Ltd", "Pty Ltd", "LLC" or "(SV)". Brand names are not enough: "Example Markets" and "Example Markets (SC) Ltd" are different companies.
3. Note the licence number and the regulator named in the same paragraph.
4. Search the regulator's own register for that company. Do not use a link from the broker's site. Our broker profiles link to each regulator's register directly.
5. Check the details match: company name, licence number, permitted activities (dealing in investments as principal, or similar), and the website domains listed.

Signs you are with a different company than you thought

• The client portal domain is different from the marketing site.
• Deposits go to a bank account in a different country from the regulator you were shown.
• The agreement mentions a jurisdiction such as Seychelles, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Mauritius, Vanuatu or the Bahamas.
• Leverage above 30:1 on major currencies or above 20:1 on gold is offered to you as a retail client in the UK, EU or Australia. Regulated entities there cannot offer it, so a higher number means you are dealing with an offshore entity.

Why this matters

That is the idea behind our broker rating: we score each broker by the company that would hold a client's money in each country, and show the result country by country.

What to do if you are with the "wrong" entity

You can usually ask to be moved to a better-regulated entity if you are eligible for it, but brokers generally onboard you according to your country of residence. If you live in a country where the broker uses an offshore entity, decide with your eyes open: the trade-off is usually higher leverage and bonuses in exchange for weaker protection.

Questions traders ask

Is it illegal for a broker to put me with its offshore entity? Not necessarily. It depends on the rules in your country. In the UK, EU and Australia, a firm cannot use an offshore entity to target local retail clients and avoid local rules.

My broker says I am covered by the group's FCA licence. Am I? Only if your account is held by the FCA-authorised company. Check the agreement.

Can I see this for my country without reading agreements? Our country pages, such as the best gold brokers in the United Kingdom, show which company each rated broker uses for residents of that country.