Who actually protects your money
"Regulated" covers everything from the FCA, which will pay you up to £85,000 if the firm fails, to a Vanuatu registration that offers no compensation and no practical way to escalate a dispute. The difference matters far more than a fraction of a pip, and almost no comparison site spells it out.
Every figure on these pages comes from the authority that set it and links back to the source, with the date it was read. Check any of them yourself — that is the point.
Check a broker’s licence in two minutes →
The four-step check against the registers, and the reason most people get it wrong: they confirm the brand is regulated somewhere, and never establish whether it is regulated for them.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Major regulator AustraliaCaps retail CFD leverage and guarantees losses cannot exceed account funds. In force since 29 March 2021 and extended to 2027. Note that Australia has no statutory compensation scheme equivalent to the UK’s FSCS — this is the gap most comparison sites never mention.
18 brokers on this site name it · leverage capped · negative balance protection
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission
Major regulator Cyprus (EU)An EU regulator, so the ESMA leverage caps, 50% margin close-out and negative balance protection all apply. The licence is genuine and checkable on a public register — but it is the lightest of the major-tier options, and many groups use a Cypriot entity for EU clients while routing others offshore.
17 brokers on this site name it · negative balance protection
European Securities and Markets Authority
Major regulator European UnionThe EU-wide floor that national regulators such as CySEC and BaFin apply. Caps leverage by asset class, forces a margin close-out at 50%, and requires negative balance protection per account.
0 brokers on this site name it · leverage capped · negative balance protection
Financial Conduct Authority
Major regulator United KingdomThe strongest combination available to a retail forex trader: a searchable public register, statutory compensation if the firm fails, and losses capped at account equity by rule rather than by the broker’s goodwill.
14 brokers on this site name it · compensation scheme · negative balance protection
Financial Sector Conduct Authority
Major regulator South AfricaA genuine conduct regulator with a licensing regime for derivative providers, though without the leverage caps or compensation scheme found in the UK, EU and Australia.
9 brokers on this site name it
Financial Services Authority Seychelles
Offshore only SeychellesA real registration, but oversight is light: no leverage cap comparable to ESMA or ASIC, no compensation scheme, and escalating a dispute from another country is difficult in practice. Very commonly the entity a broker assigns to clients outside the EU, UK and Australia — check which entity your account is actually opened with, not which licence the website advertises.
10 brokers on this site name it
Financial Services Commission Belize
Offshore only BelizeOffshore registration permitting very high leverage. No compensation scheme and limited practical recourse for a client based elsewhere.
3 brokers on this site name it
Financial Services Commission British Virgin Islands
Offshore only British Virgin IslandsOffshore registration. No retail leverage cap and no compensation scheme.
1 broker on this site name it
Vanuatu Financial Services Commission
Offshore only VanuatuLight-touch registration with no retail leverage cap and no compensation scheme. Treat a Vanuatu entity as offering essentially no recourse if something goes wrong.
5 brokers on this site name it
The entity is what counts, not the badge
A broker group can hold an FCA licence and an offshore registration at the same time, and open your account on whichever entity your country of residence points at. The FCA licence on the homepage is real; it may simply have nothing to do with your account. Check which legal entity your client agreement names, then look that entity up on the register — not the brand.
This is the single most consequential check a retail trader can make, and it takes about two minutes.