Guide
Almost every global broker brand is a group of companies. The one that holds your account is picked by your address — and for most of the world, it is the offshore one. Here is what those registrations really are.
Facts checked on October 22, 2026
Beginners read 'regulated in 5 jurisdictions' as a shield that follows the logo. It does not. Regulation attaches to a legal entity and a client list. If your agreement is with the Seychelles company, the FCA's rules, the FSCS fund and the ombudsman are all real — for somebody else.
Seychelles (FSA) and Belize (FSC) run real licensing regimes for international brokers: capital requirements, reporting, a regulator that can act — but no investor compensation scheme and no ombudsman for foreign clients in practice. Mauritius (FSC) sits in the same band. Vanuatu (VFSC) is lighter. St Vincent & the Grenadines is the floor: the SVG authorities state plainly that they do not license or supervise forex brokers, so an 'SVG-regulated broker' is a company registration wearing a costume. Bahamas (SCB) and Bermuda (BMA) sit above SVG but still carry no compensation fund for you.
If an EU entity fails, an investor compensation scheme returns up to €20,000 of client money; in the UK, the FSCS covers up to £85,000, and an ombudsman can order redress while the firm still stands. If an offshore entity fails or simply refuses, your claim is a letter to a small-island regulator and a queue in a foreign liquidation. Most retail balances are never recovered. That asymmetry — not spreads, not marketing — is the real price difference between entities.
Offshore entities face lighter capital rules, no leverage caps and cheaper compliance, and they can accept countries the group could not serve under its top-tier licences. Sometimes that is the only way a resident of your country can be served at all — which can still be a rational, eyes-open choice. Our verdict for that pair is never 'scam'; it is 'deposit with eyes open — offshore entity', with the protection field reading exactly what it is: none.
A broker's 'regulated worldwide' page lists the group's licences, not yours. The only licence that exists for you is the one attached to the entity named in your client agreement.
The free check gives you the verdict for one country and one broker. The Deposit Safety Kit gives you the complete walkthroughs: how to verify the entity in the broker's own legal footer, where on your regulator's site the register and the warning lists live, how to read a compensation scheme, and the first-withdrawal test protocol — deposit small, withdraw first, then decide.
Included in the $39 Deposit Safety Kit
Sources: the brokers' own legal and entity pages as published on the check date; the Reserve Bank of India Alert List; the UK Financial Conduct Authority Register and Warning List; the Australian Securities and Investments Commission registers; Bappebti (Indonesia) licensed and blocked lists; CVM (Brazil) declaratory acts; the FSCA (South Africa) FSP register; the Capital Markets Authority (Kenya) licensee list; the Securities and Exchange Commission (Philippines) advisory list; SECP/PMEX (Pakistan) membership; SEC Nigeria and Central Bank of Nigeria publications. Affiliate bounty figures from the programs' own published terms (Exness, XM, Plus500, eToro affiliate pages). If a fact has moved since our check date, the regulator's or broker's own publication wins — and write to help@doogex.com so we can correct ours.