How to check a firm on the FCA Register before any money changes hands

Before handing money to a pension adviser, an insurer, an investment firm or a lender, it takes a few minutes to see what the Financial Conduct Authority has on record about it. The useful part is not only whether the firm is listed, but which phone number and website the record shows.

Most people check a builder’s reviews or a restaurant’s menu before spending money. With financial firms the equivalent check is quicker and more reliable, because it comes from the regulator rather than from other customers. It is the Financial Services Register, published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The register is free to use, and anyone can search it by firm name, by individual name or by the firm’s reference number. This article walks through what it shows and how to read it.

Why the register is the starting point

In the UK, most firms that offer financial products or advice need to be authorised or registered by the FCA. That covers banks and building societies, insurers, mortgage and pension advisers, investment firms, consumer credit lenders and many more. Authorisation means the firm has been assessed and is supervised, and that customers have routes to complain and, in many cases, compensation if things go wrong.

The FCA’s advice to consumers is to check that a firm is authorised before dealing with it, and to use the contact details on the register rather than those in an email, advert or cold call. Those two steps sit at the centre of everything below.

What the register shows

The Financial Services Register lists firms and individuals that the FCA has approved, now or in the past. It also lists firms that are not authorised but have come to the FCA’s attention, including clone firms that copy the details of real ones, and appointed representatives together with the firm responsible for them.

For a firm, the record typically includes:

• its status, such as authorised, registered or no longer authorised;
• its firm reference number (FRN);
• the activities it has permission to carry out;
• registered and trading names, address, phone number, website and complaints contact;
• individuals who work there, and for many of them the roles they are approved or certified for;
• any fines, disciplinary action and the firm’s history.

The FCA also offers a simpler consumer tool, Firm Checker, built on the same information. It shows whether a firm is authorised or registered and what it is allowed to do, alongside contact details that firms must confirm at least once a year.

A check, step by step

The table below shows the kind of comparison worth making, using an invented firm. The left column is what the firm has told you; the right is what the register says.

In this example the name and number match a real authorised firm, but the contact details do not. That is the pattern of a clone, described in the next section.

The order matters. Search for the firm on the register yourself, then compare the permissions with what it is offering, then compare the contact details, and only then use the details from the register to get in touch.

Clone firms and the contact details

A clone firm copies a genuine firm’s name, address and firm reference number, and then gives out its own phone number, email address or website. A search by name or FRN therefore turns up a real, authorised firm, which can look reassuring.

The FCA’s guidance is to check that the contact details you have been given match those shown for the firm. If the register shows no contact details, or the firm says the details on the register are out of date, call the FCA on 0800 111 6768. The FCA notes that the register is updated about every 24 hours, so a claim that it is out of date is unlikely to be true. Small changes to a web address, such as an extra word or a different ending, are worth looking at closely.

The FCA also publishes a Warning List of firms and individuals it believes are operating without permission or running scams, and you can sign up for daily emails of new entries.

Appointed representatives

Some firms are not authorised in their own right but act as appointed representatives of an authorised firm, known as the principal. The principal takes responsibility for the representative’s regulated work, and the register shows which principal that is.

The detail to look at is the scope. If an appointed representative does something outside the permissions of its principal, you may not have the usual protection. So the question is not only “is the firm on the register?” but “is it allowed to do this particular thing?”

What authorisation brings with it

If you deal with an authorised firm and have a complaint it does not resolve, you can usually take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free. If an authorised firm fails, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) may pay compensation, depending on the type of product. For deposits, the FSCS limit is £120,000 per person per authorised bank or building society, from 1 December 2025.

Dealing with an unauthorised firm means neither the Ombudsman nor the FSCS is available. That is the practical reason the register check matters.

The register shows whether a firm is allowed to do the job, not just whether it exists.

Who this matters for, and what to check

The check is worth doing whenever money or personal details are about to go to a financial firm for the first time: a pension transfer or drawdown arrangement, a new investment, an equity release adviser, an insurer or a credit provider. People approaching retirement meet several of these in a short space of time. Our article on the Money Purchase Annual Allowance covers one of the rules that come with flexible pension withdrawals. Before paying:

• search the register yourself, by name or FRN;
• check the status and that the permissions cover what is being offered;
• compare the phone number, email and website with what you have been given;
• for an appointed representative, note the principal and its permissions;
• when you pay, read the bank’s name check, as our guide to Confirmation of Payee explains.

The short version

The FCA’s Financial Services Register shows whether a firm is authorised, what it may do, who works there and how to contact it. Clone firms copy real firms’ names and numbers, so the contact details are the key comparison, and the FCA’s helpline is 0800 111 6768 if they are missing or disputed. Authorised firms bring access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and, in many cases, the FSCS; unauthorised firms do not.