How to research a financial company
By Editorial team · Published · Last checked
A practical order of checks — registration, ownership, complaints history, fees and reviews — and what each one can and cannot tell you.
Researching a company before you deal with it is mostly a matter of knowing which sources are authoritative and in what order to use them. Twenty minutes in the right order is worth more than an afternoon of searching.
Start with the register, not the website
Every financial company's website says it is trustworthy. The register says whether it is authorised.
Find the company in the relevant regulator's public register and confirm: that it exists under that name, that its authorisation covers what it is offering you, and that its status is current. Registers also show trading names, previous names and disclosure history, all of which are informative.
Where a profile on this site is matched to a register, we link to the entry so you can read the source rather than our summary of it.
Two traps worth knowing. A company can be registered for one activity and be selling another. And a firm may use a trading name that differs from the registered one — if you cannot reconcile the two, ask, and be wary of a vague answer.
Check the name matches exactly
Cloned firms are a real and common fraud: a copy of a legitimate company's details, with the contact details changed. Compare the phone number and website in the register with the ones you were given. If they differ, contact the firm using the register's details, not the ones you were sent.
Look at how long it has existed and who owns it
Incorporation records are public in most countries and free to search. They show when the company was formed, who the directors are, and whether accounts have been filed on time.
A young company is not a bad company. A company whose filings are persistently late, or whose directors have a history of dissolved entities in the same sector, is worth a second look.
Read complaints and disputes, not just reviews
Many regulators publish complaints data or enforcement action. Ombudsman schemes publish decisions. These are a different and more reliable class of information than reviews, because a third party has examined the facts.
Search the company's name alongside the name of the relevant ombudsman or regulator.
Then read reviews, knowing what they are
Reviews tell you about experience — how the firm behaved when something went wrong, how long things took, whether people felt informed. They do not tell you whether a firm is solvent or authorised.
Read them for patterns rather than for individual outcomes. One furious review says little; six reviews describing the same delay in the same process say something. Look at how the company replies, if it does.
Be sceptical of a review profile that is uniformly glowing and clustered in time.
Get the costs in writing
Ask for every charge, in currency, for the thing you are actually buying. Ask what happens at the end of the initial period, and what it costs to leave.
A firm that will not put its charges in writing before you commit has told you something useful.
What protection applies if it fails
Ask whether your money is covered by a deposit guarantee or investor compensation scheme, up to what limit, and whether the firm you are dealing with is the one holding the money. Where funds are held by a third party, the protection may depend on that third party rather than the firm you are talking to.
A reasonable order
- Regulator's register — authorised, current, and for the right activity
- Contact details reconciled against the register
- Incorporation record — age, directors, filing history
- Complaints, enforcement and ombudsman decisions
- Customer reviews, read for patterns
- Costs in writing
- What protection applies if it fails
This guide explains how to research a company. It is not financial advice and it does not recommend any company listed in this directory. Registers and protection schemes vary by country.
This is an explanation, not advice.
We describe how these products work. We do not know your circumstances and we do not tell anyone where to put their money. Nothing here recommends a company — financialservicescompanies.com is not a regulator and does not endorse any of the companies it lists. See our neutrality policy.