What Is the FCA Warning List of Unauthorised and Clone Firms?

Updated

The FCA Warning List is a public page on fca.org.uk that names firms the Financial Conduct Authority believes are operating without authorisation, including "clone firms" that impersonate legitimate authorised businesses. You use it to check a firm before you hand over money or personal details. It is one input into a decision, not a guarantee: a firm's absence from the list does not by itself prove it is authorised, so the Warning List is best used alongside the FCA Firm Checker and the Financial Services Register.

What the Warning List covers

The FCA describes the list as covering "unauthorised and clone firms." Two distinct problems sit under that heading:

  • Unauthorised firms — businesses that appear to be offering financial services or products without the permission the FCA requires. The FCA's stated role is to regulate financial services firms and markets in the UK, set standards, and hold firms to account when they fall short.
  • Clone firms — operations that copy the identity of a genuine, authorised firm. They may use a real firm's name, address, registration details, or website design to make you believe you are dealing with the authorised business.

The practical risk is the same in both cases: you may be dealing with an entity that is not subject to FCA rules or the protections that come with authorisation.

How to use it before you commit

The FCA positions the Warning List as part of its consumer information, alongside the FCA Firm Checker. A workable sequence:

  1. Identify the firm precisely. Get the legal name, any trading name, the firm reference number if one is quoted, and the website or contact details you were actually given — not the ones on a search result.
  2. Check the Warning List. Look for the firm's name and any aliases. Clone entries often flag that the details match a real firm, which is the signal that someone is impersonating it.
  3. Check the FCA Firm Checker. The FCA describes this as a tool that makes it easier to check whether financial services firms are authorised and have permission to sell you products and services.
  4. Cross-check the Financial Services Register. The Register is listed among the FCA's resources and is the underlying record of authorised firms and permissions.
  5. Verify contact details independently. If a firm claims to be authorised, contact the genuine firm using details you sourced yourself, not details supplied by the party you are checking.

Expected result: you either find the firm on the Warning List (treat that as a strong reason to stop), or you confirm an authorised entry whose permissions actually cover what you are being offered.

Why "authorised" alone is not enough

A firm can be authorised for one activity and not another. The FCA Firm Checker is described as checking both authorisation and permission to sell you particular products and services. So a firm that appears on the Register may still not be permitted to do what it is proposing. Check the specific permission, not just the name.

Clone firms exploit exactly this gap: they borrow a real firm's authorisation status while offering something that firm does not sell, or while using contact details the real firm does not use.

Common points where people get caught

  • Trusting the name match. A clone uses the real firm's name, so a search that returns the genuine entry can feel like confirmation. Compare the contact details, not just the name.
  • Skipping the Warning List because the Register looked clean. The two checks answer different questions.
  • Acting on unsolicited contact. The FCA publishes warnings about fake FCA communications, which is a related risk: someone claiming to be from the FCA itself.
  • Assuming absence from the list means safe. The list reflects firms the FCA has identified and published; it is not a complete register of everything that exists.

Where the Warning List sits on fca.org.uk

The FCA homepage groups its content into For consumers and For firms. The Warning List of unauthorised and clone firms, the FCA Firm Checker, and consumer information sit under the consumer side. Firm-facing resources — My FCA, the Financial Services Register, RegData, the FCA Handbook, Connect, and the Online Invoicing System — sit under the firm side. If you are a consumer checking a firm, the consumer section is the right starting point.

The FCA also offers newsletters and email alerts covering news, publications, events, and unauthorised firm warnings, which is one way to receive warning updates without revisiting the page manually.

What this means for your decision

Treat the Warning List as a stop signal, not a clearance certificate. If a firm appears on it, the FCA has publicly identified it as unauthorised or a clone — that is enough to walk away. If it does not appear, complete the Firm Checker and Register checks, confirm the permission matches the product, and verify contact details through a channel you chose yourself.