A website footer reads: "Registration number 12847391. Registered in England and Wales." Nothing there is false. Nothing there says the firm may hold your money either. That number belongs to a corporate registry, which records that a company exists, who its directors are and where it files accounts. It carries no financial permission of any kind.
The vocabulary problem is that both words end up shortened to the same thing in conversation. Firms say they are "regulated". Clients hear "supervised". The two overlap in some regimes and barely touch in others, and telling them apart is the first check worth doing on any counterparty.
Three different things a firm can mean by registered
Corporate registration is the weakest claim. Every trading company on earth has it, including the ones that are about to disappear. It proves incorporation and nothing more.
Narrow-purpose registration is the middle case. A regulator keeps a list for a specific statutory reason, most commonly anti-money-laundering supervision. The regulator checks beneficial owners, fitness of directors and the existence of AML controls. It does not review the firm's pricing, execution quality or client money handling, and it does not stand behind the firm's solvency. Crypto asset service registrations in several European states worked this way before the MiCA authorisation regime replaced them.
Full authorisation is the strong case. The regulator has assessed a business plan, capital, systems, senior managers and controls, then issued permissions for named regulated activities. Those permissions are conditions, not decorations: they can be varied, restricted or withdrawn, and the firm reports against them for as long as it operates.
| Corporate registration | Narrow-purpose registration | Full authorisation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Issued by | Companies registry | Financial or AML supervisor | Financial regulator |
| What is examined | Filing formalities | Owners, directors, AML controls | Capital, systems, conduct, staff |
| Ongoing supervision | None | Limited to the regime's scope | Continuous reporting and review |
| Client protection attached | None | Rarely any | Segregation, compensation, complaints |
Authorisation is a permission, a register is a list
The useful mental model: an authorisation is a document that says what you may do, and a register is a public list that says who holds what. Every authorised firm appears on a register, so a register entry is necessary. It is not sufficient, because registers also carry entries for firms with narrow permissions, for appointed representatives who trade under someone else's authorisation, and sometimes for firms whose permissions have already been restricted.
The detail is on the entry page, in the section that lists regulated activities. A firm permitted to advise on investments is in a different position from one permitted to deal in investments as principal, and only the second can be the counterparty to a leveraged trade. If you have not read a register entry line by line before, the walkthrough in how to check a broker licence covers what each field means, and broker licence registers lists where the main ones live.
The most common trick in this space is not a fake licence. It is a real licence held by a related entity that is not the one you sign with. Check the legal name on the client agreement and the name on the register entry, character by character. "Group Holdings Ltd" and "Group Markets Ltd" are two companies.
Where the line genuinely blurs
Some regimes use the word registration for what is functionally an authorisation. US retail forex is the clearest example: firms must be registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the relevant capacity and be members of the National Futures Association, and that combination carries capital requirements and conduct rules that look nothing like a mere listing.
Other regimes split by activity. A firm may be authorised for one thing and merely registered for another, holding a full investment permission while its crypto side sits under a lighter registration until a new regime bites. Payments adds another layer, since an electronic money institution licence and a payment institution licence grant different powers, and neither one permits dealing in financial instruments. The distinction matters when a firm points at an EMI licence as if it covered brokerage.
Prop firms sit in the murkiest corner. Many operate on simulated accounts and take the position that no investment permission is required, which is why so much of the debate covered in prop firm regulation is about characterisation rather than about who has which licence.
What the difference means when something goes wrong
Client outcomes are where the abstraction becomes concrete. Under a full authorisation, client money rules usually require segregation from firm money, a compensation scheme may cover a defined amount if the firm fails, and an ombudsman or equivalent handles complaints. Under a narrow registration, none of that necessarily applies, and the recovery route is ordinary insolvency proceedings alongside every other creditor.
That gap is the entire argument for reading the register before funding rather than after a withdrawal request stalls. The comparison in regulated versus unregulated brokers goes through the practical differences, and offshore broker licences covers the regimes where the words look similar and the protections are not.
The check, in about four minutes
Take the legal entity name from the client agreement, not from the homepage. Open the regulator's register directly, typing the address yourself. Search the name. Read the permissions, the address and the status field. Confirm the trading name you signed up under is listed. Note the date of authorisation and any restriction.
If any of those steps produces a mismatch, the answer is not to ask support. Support will forward a certificate image, and a certificate image proves nothing at all. For firms building on the other side of this, the same logic runs through licensing decisions: your permission set determines your product set, and no amount of software makes an unpermitted activity legal.
"Anyone can register a company in an afternoon. Getting permission to hold someone else's money takes months and a real balance sheet. When a firm quotes you a number, ask which of the two it is."
— Roman Onta, Executive Director, SINGUARD
Key Takeaways
- A company registration number proves a legal entity exists and grants no financial permission whatsoever.
- Appearing on a regulator's register is necessary but not sufficient: read the permissions section to see which regulated activities are actually allowed.
- Some regimes call an authorisation a registration, so the label matters less than the obligations attached to it.
- Segregation, compensation schemes and complaint bodies come with full authorisation, rarely with a narrow-purpose listing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a company registration number the same as a financial licence?
No. A company registration number proves that a legal entity exists in a corporate registry. It says nothing about permission to hold client money, deal in investments or offer leveraged products. Financial permissions are issued separately by a financial regulator and appear in that regulator's own public register with a different number.
Does being on a regulator's register mean a firm is supervised?
Not always. Some registers list fully authorised firms that are subject to capital rules, conduct rules and ongoing supervision. Others are simply lists kept for a narrow purpose, such as anti-money-laundering registration, where the regulator checks specific controls and beneficial owners but does not supervise the firm's investment conduct. The register page itself normally states which regime applies.
How do I check what a firm is actually permitted to do?
Open the regulator's own register directly rather than following a link from the firm's website, search by the entity name or reference number, and read the permissions section. It lists the regulated activities the firm may carry on, any client money restriction, the countries it may passport into and the trading names it may use. A mismatch between that list and the firm's marketing is the signal to stop.