How to check an insurance broker on the FCA register

Anyone arranging insurance for you in the UK should be on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Services Register, and the register is public. The check takes about two minutes once you know what to look for, and this guide walks through it. One note on what this page is: Whito is not FCA authorised and this is not financial advice; it is instructions for using a public register.

Find the firm reference number

Authorised firms display a firm reference number, the FRN, usually in the website footer: six or seven digits after words like “authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority”. The FRN is the reliable search key, because brands and legal names drift and the number does not. No FRN anywhere on the site is itself a finding; ask for it, and treat reluctance as your answer.

Run the number on the register

Search the FRN at register.fca.org.uk. A healthy entry shows the firm as authorised, with current status, its legal name, and its trading names. Check two things beyond the green status: that the trading name you were dealing with appears on the entry, and that the entry is the firm you meant, not a similarly named one. Clones of real firms are a known fraud pattern, so check the contact details on the register against the ones you were given, and be suspicious of a firm that only ever contacts you from details that differ from its register entry.

Is it actually a broker?

The register records what a firm is permitted to do. You do not need to parse regulatory language to use this: the entry’s permissions and the firm’s own description should make sense together. A firm whose business is plainly financial advising, or a comparison site whose role ends at introduction, is not an insurance broker, whatever a search result called it. If what you want is advice on cover and someone to act for you at claim time, make sure the firm you check describes itself, and is permitted, as an insurance intermediary.

Appointed representatives

Some firms act as appointed representatives of another authorised firm, the principal. That is a lawful structure, and the register shows it. What to note is simply who carries the responsibility, the principal, and that the relationship is current on the register, not just claimed on the website.

If you are a broker reading this

Put your FRN in a visible sentence on every page, linked to your register entry, and keep your trading names on the register in step with your marketing. Whito does not verify FCA permissions: check any firm on the FCA register before taking advice, and expect your customers, increasingly, to do the same to you.

Corrections and right of reply

If your business is named in this research and you think we have a fact wrong, email hello@whito.co.uk. We check it against the register, correct it within five working days if we are wrong, and publish your statement alongside if you want us to. Full route: corrections, right of reply and removals.

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