FCA · 6 min read · BrokerFit Editorial
FCA Register: 5 Statuses That Look Like a Licence (2026)
We checked all 10 brokers we cover against the FCA Register. Six hold a live UK authorisation, three hold none, one is winding down. Here is how to read an entry properly.
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The short answer
"Regulated by the FCA" is not one fact. The Financial Services Register carries at least five different states, and from a distance they all look the same: the firm is on the register, so it must be licensed.
We opened the register entry for every legal entity behind the ten brokers we cover. Six hold a live UK authorisation with no adverse notices. Three hold none at all — their only entry is dead. One holds a restricted licence plus a wind-down permission.
The pattern that produces most of the confusion is Brexit: the Cyprus, Bulgarian, Estonian and Dutch companies that European clients actually sign with lost their UK passport, and their register entries now read "No longer authorised" while still carrying the brand name everyone recognises.
The five statuses
Authorised. A live permission. The firm can take on new UK clients for the activities listed on its record. This is what people mean when they say "FCA regulated".
Authorised, with requirements or restrictions. Also live, but the FCA has attached conditions to what the firm may do — up to and including suspensions. Critically, this does not appear in search results. The entry looks ordinary in the results list; the notice only shows once you open the firm's record.
Supervised run-off. A post-Brexit wind-down permission under the financial services contracts regime. It lets an EEA firm finish servicing contracts signed before the transition period ended. The FCA's own notice on such records says the firm "is running off its UK business and cannot deal with new customers." It is not a licence to trade.
Applied to Cancel. The firm has asked the FCA to withdraw its permission. The entry is still there while the process runs.
No longer authorised. The permission is gone. The entry remains searchable — which is exactly why it gets mistaken for a licence.
What we found, broker by broker
Every row below was read from the firm's own record on the FCA Register, not from a broker's marketing page. Verified 13 August 2026 (EXANTE, XTB, Tickmill and Admirals were checked on 29 July 2026).
| Broker | Legal entity | FRN | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Brokers | Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited | 208159 | Authorised |
| Interactive Brokers LLC | 178750 | No longer authorised | |
| Interactive Brokers Luxembourg SARL | 849401 | No longer authorised | |
| XTB | XTB Limited | 522157 | Authorised |
| Tickmill | Tickmill UK Ltd | 717270 | Authorised |
| Admirals | Admiral Markets UK Ltd | 595450 | Authorised |
| Admiral Markets Cyprus Ltd | 616560 | No longer authorised | |
| Admiral Markets AS | 504672 | No longer authorised | |
| eToro | eToro (UK) Limited | 583263 | Authorised |
| eToro Money UK Ltd | 900203 | Authorised (e-money) | |
| eToro (Europe) Limited | 523775 | No longer authorised | |
| Trading 212 | Trading 212 UK Limited | 609146 | Authorised |
| Trading 212 Ltd (Sofia) | 569256 | No longer authorised | |
| EXANTE | LHCM Ltd | 789421 | Authorised, with restrictions |
| EXT Ltd | 589898 | Supervised run-off | |
| DEGIRO | DEGIRO B.V. | 595455 | No longer authorised — only entry |
| Just2Trade | Just2Trade Online Ltd | 737877 | No longer authorised — only entry |
| Freedom Finance | Freedom Finance Europe Ltd | 745215 | Applied to Cancel |
The cases worth knowing about
DEGIRO and Just2Trade have no live UK authorisation
Each has exactly one entry on the register, and it is dead. DEGIRO appears as DEGIRO B.V. of Amsterdam, no longer authorised. Just2Trade appears as Just2Trade Online Ltd of Limassol, likewise.
This does not mean either is unregulated — DEGIRO operates under Dutch and German supervision, Just2Trade under CySEC licence 281/15. It means the FCA is not the regulator standing behind your account, and any page implying otherwise is wrong.
EXANTE has two UK entries and neither is a plain licence
The number quoted across comparison sites is FRN 589898. That entry belongs to EXT Ltd — the Cyprus company, registered in Limassol — and it sits in supervised run-off, closed to new customers. The brand's actually-authorised UK company is LHCM Ltd, FRN 789421, and its record carries a restrictions notice.
The practical consequence is a compensation figure that is wrong by a factor of four almost everywhere: open an account today and you are a client of the Cyprus or Malta entity, covered to €20,000 by the EU scheme, not to £85,000 by the FSCS. We wrote this up in detail in our EXANTE regulatory review.
Freedom Finance Europe has applied to cancel
FRN 745215 shows "Applied to Cancel" — the firm has asked the FCA to withdraw the permission. It is the only entity in our set with that status. Freedom Finance clients in the EU contract with the Cyprus entity under CySEC in any case.
The European entity is almost always the dead one
Look down the table and the shape repeats: an authorised British subsidiary, and beside it the Cyprus, Bulgarian, Estonian, Luxembourgish or Dutch company marked "No longer authorised". Limassol for eToro and Admirals, Sofia for Trading 212, Amsterdam for DEGIRO, Luxembourg for Interactive Brokers.
Those lapsed entries are the ones most European and CIS clients would be looking at, because those are the companies whose terms they sign. The UK subsidiary usually serves UK residents only.
How to read an entry yourself
- Search the FCA Register by firm name, not by brand. A brand can span half a dozen companies.
- Read the status on every result, not just the first. "No longer authorised" and "Applied to Cancel" appear inline in the results list.
- Open the record. Restrictions, suspensions and clone-firm warnings only appear on the firm's own page.
- Check the address. A Limassol or Sofia address on a UK register entry is a strong hint that you are looking at a passported entity, not a British one.
- Match the entity to your contract. The only status that matters is the one attached to the company named in the terms you are about to accept — which is rarely the company named in the advertising.
Method and limits
We read each entry directly on the FCA Register and recorded the status verbatim. Nothing here is taken from a broker's own description of itself or from another comparison site.
Three limits worth stating plainly:
- This covers the FCA only. Absence of a UK authorisation says nothing about CySEC, BaFin, KNF, ASIC or MFSA standing. Several brokers here are properly regulated elsewhere.
- Statuses change. "Applied to Cancel" and "Supervised run-off" are processes, and they resolve in both directions. The verification dates are given above; check the register before acting on any of it.
- Clone warnings are common. Interactive Brokers, eToro, Trading 212, XTB and Freedom all have entries flagging firms that impersonate them. If you arrived at a broker through an advert or a message, confirm the domain against the register entry.
For how we assess brokers generally, see our methodology.
Not financial advice. All register statuses read directly from register.fca.org.uk on 13 August 2026, with EXANTE, XTB, Tickmill and Admirals verified on 29 July 2026. Firm Reference Numbers are given so every row can be checked independently.
About the author
In-house editorial team — software engineers, product designers, and data analysts
The BrokerFit editorial team researches and maintains every page on this site. We are not licensed financial advisors, which is why our work focuses on systematizing public regulator data, building decision-support tools, and explaining how products actually work rather than issuing personal recommendations. All data points we publish are traceable to a public source — regulator register, broker disclosure document, or market data provider — and we correct errors within seven days of verification. For topics that require a licensed professional, we invite named external contributors and sign their work clearly.
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