How to Check an Insurer Is Authorised by the FCA

Key things to know

1. Nearly every UK firm offering financial services needs FCA authorisation or registration, and authorised firms hold permission for each activity they sell.
2. Search the firm’s name or Firm Reference Number on the Financial Services Register and check its contact details match the ones you were given.
3. Appointed representatives act for a principal firm, so ask the principal to confirm what the representative may do and how you would be protected.
4. The FSCS never charges for claims and is funded by a levy on the financial industry, but it cannot confirm every product is covered.
5. If a firm is not listed, lacks the right permission or shows a warning, the FCA’s advice is to avoid dealing with it.

Insurance is one of the few purchases where you pay first and only find out whether the product works when you claim. That makes the legitimacy of the firm selling the policy worth a few minutes of checking before you commit. The check is free, and it takes less time than running a single quote. This walkthrough shows you how to confirm a firm is authorised, which permissions to look for, and what protection you have if something goes wrong.

Why Authorisation Matters Before You Buy

UK rules require almost every business offering financial services to be authorised or registered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Authorisation means a firm has met the regulator’s standards and holds permission for the specific products and services it sells. Dealing with insurance contracts is a regulated activity, and doing it without authorisation is a criminal matter that can end in a fine or imprisonment.

For you, the practical difference comes down to protection. Buy from an authorised firm and you can generally take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and claim compensation from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) if the company collapses. A firm that is merely registered, rather than authorised, cannot provide regulated products that need authorisation, and if you use one anyway you are unlikely to have either route open to you. Authorised firms also have to follow FCA conduct rules, including the rules that govern how insurers set renewal prices. Our guide to insurance renewals and the FCA’s pricing rules explains what those rules mean for you as a customer.

Step One: Get the Firm’s Exact Name and Reference Number

Start by asking the firm for its Firm Reference Number, often shortened to FRN. This is the number the FCA gives an authorised firm, and searching by it is the most reliable way to search the register. Get the firm’s exact trading name too, spelled exactly as the firm writes it.

Names matter here. Some policies are sold under a brand that is not the firm actually providing or underwriting the cover, and one insurer may sit behind several different brands. Clone firms rely on the opposite trick: a name that looks almost right but is not quite the real one.

Step Two: Search the Financial Services Register

The Financial Services Register is the FCA’s official record of every firm, individual and other body that it, or the Prudential Regulation Authority, has authorised, now or in the past. For a quick check before you buy, the FCA’s Firm Checker does the same core job for consumers: it shows whether a company is authorised and permitted to sell you the product or service in question.

Search by name or FRN and read what comes back. A genuine firm will show as authorised, with its permitted activities listed alongside. If the firm does not appear at all, or appears with a warning, treat it as unauthorised. The register also names firms the FCA has been told are selling regulated products without the right authorisation, along with the alternative contact details those firms use, and the FCA keeps a separate warning list of firms it has flagged.

Step Three: Check Which Activities the Firm Is Allowed to Do

Authorisation is not all or nothing. A firm can be authorised for one type of business and not another, so confirm the register shows permission for the insurance service you are being offered, not just authorisation in general. Compare the contact details on the register with the ones the firm has given you: phone number, address and website. Mismatches are one of the easiest ways to catch a clone firm.

A firm listed as an appointed representative needs an extra look. Appointed representatives trade under another authorised firm, called their principal. If a representative acts beyond the scope its principal has set, protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service or the FSCS may not apply, so contact the principal and ask it to confirm what the representative may do and how you would be protected if something went wrong. Contact details for both appear on the register.

If you are also relying on a named individual, the register covers individuals carrying out regulated activities, listing their current posts and any disciplinary or regulatory marks against their name. Not every individual at a firm needs FCA approval, so an absence is not automatically a red flag; the FCA says checking the firm’s permissions is the simplest and most effective way to reduce your risk.

That protection matters most when something goes wrong. If a claim is later refused, complaining to the Financial Ombudsman Service is one of your options with an authorised firm, and our guide to challenging a rejected claim walks through the process.

Warnings About Clone Firms and Lookalike Websites

A clone firm is one that falsely claims to be a genuine, authorised firm. It may borrow the real firm’s name, and some go further and copy reference numbers, documents and website designs. The problem is not small. Action Fraud put consumer losses from brand cloning scams at more than £78 million in 2020, an average of £45,242 per victim. The FCA issued more than 1,000 scam warnings that year, and four in ten of them concerned cloned or impersonated financial brands.

Criminals also reach people through paid online adverts and bogus comparison websites, so a polished advert at the top of your search results is not proof that a firm is real. Our guide to using comparison sites without the pitfalls covers what to check before you act on a quote. Scammers impersonate the protection bodies too. Some use the FSCS logo without permission to make non-existent products look protected; others pose as FSCS staff and offer compensation for losses you never had, charging an upfront fee for a claim that will never be handled.

Watch for: The FSCS never asks for money, before, during or after a claim, and genuine FSCS email addresses end with @fscs.org.uk. If anyone claiming to be from the FSCS or the FCA asks for a fee, walk away.

What FSCS Protection Covers If a Firm Fails

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme pays compensation when an authorised firm fails and customers lose out. Claiming from it is free. Its funding comes from a levy on the financial industry, so there is nothing to pay whether your claim succeeds or not. That safety net is one of the main reasons authorisation is worth checking.

Its limits matter as well. Neither the Firm Checker nor the register can confirm that FSCS or Ombudsman protection will definitely apply to your particular product, and the FSCS does not protect every type of firm. If the protection matters to your decision, check with the FSCS directly about the kinds of claims and complaints it can help with. The simplest way to stay inside the protection system is to avoid firms that are registered but not authorised.

What to Do If You Cannot Find the Firm Listed

If a firm is not on the register, does not have permission for the service you want, or shows a warning, the FCA’s advice is to avoid dealing with them. This is a criminal matter as much as a consumer one. If you have already paid, or you suspect the person you dealt with was not who they claimed to be, report it: contact Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 if you think you have been a victim of fraud, and tell the FCA or the FSCS if their names have been used.

Do not use the contact details the firm gave you, because a clone firm controls those. Find the genuine firm’s details on the register yourself and contact it that way. If your policy is already in place and you simply want to confirm the firm behind it, the same register check works just as well after purchase as before. Before your next premium falls due, search the firm’s name or FRN on the register and read the permissions line for yourself.

Questions answered

What is a Firm Reference Number?
It is the number the FCA gives an authorised firm. Ask the firm for its FRN and use it to search the register, because it is more precise than a name.

Does appearing on the register guarantee FSCS protection?
No. Neither the Firm Checker nor the register can confirm that FSCS or Financial Ombudsman Service protection will definitely cover your particular product, so check with the FSCS directly if it matters to your decision.

How do I spot a clone firm?
A clone firm falsely claims to be a genuine, authorised firm and often uses contact details that differ from the register. Compare the details yourself and check the FCA’s warning list.

Can I check an individual as well as a firm?
Yes, on the Financial Services Register, including current posts and any disciplinary history. Not every individual needs FCA approval, so checking the firm’s permissions is the more effective check.