How to Check if a Bank Is Duly Licensed
Every bank operating in the EU, EEA or UK must appear in a public register. Here is how to verify a licence yourself in a few minutes — the exact registers to check, what each entry means, and the warning signs that usually mark a scam.
Why the licence matters
A banking licence is the legal permission to take deposits from the public. In the EU it is granted by the ECB (for significant institutions) or by the national competent authority on the ECB's behalf. Without it, an entity cannot lawfully hold customer deposits, and its clients are not covered by the €100,000 deposit guarantee under the Deposit Guarantee Schemes Directive.
The licence type also tells you what a firm is allowed to do. A credit institution can take deposits and lend. An electronic money institution (EMI) can issue e-money and hold customer funds in safeguarded accounts but cannot lend those funds. A payment institution (PI) can execute payments but cannot hold customer money outside a strict safeguarding regime. Confusing the three is the source of most misunderstandings about deposit protection at neobanks.
The three registers to check
Start with the EBA Credit Institutions Register. It is the pan-European directory of every authorised credit institution in the EU and EEA, maintained by the European Banking Authority and updated from national feeds. If a bank claims EU authorisation and is not in this register, treat that as a red flag.
Next, check the ECB's public 'List of supervised entities'. The ECB directly supervises around 110 significant banks across the Banking Union under the Single Supervisory Mechanism. The list is published monthly and separates significant from less significant institutions.
Finally, confirm in the national competent authority's own register in the bank's home country. This is where you get the licence date, the exact legal name, the head-office address and, for many countries, the passporting notifications (which member states the bank is allowed to serve). Examples: BaFin in Germany, ACPR/Regafi in France, Bank of Italy, Bank of Spain and CNMV, MFSA in Malta, the Central Bank of Ireland, DNB in the Netherlands. For the United Kingdom, use the FCA Financial Services Register — every UK bank, EMI and PI is listed there with its FRN.
How to read a register entry — and red flags
A register entry shows the legal name (often longer than the trading brand), the licence type, the authorisation status ('authorised', 'in liquidation', 'passported'), the competent authority and the date of authorisation. If you are opening an account through a marketing site, cross-check every one of these fields against what the site claims.
The classic scam is the clone firm: fraudsters copy a real, licensed bank's name and website, change one letter in the domain and route deposits to an unrelated account. The FCA and several EU regulators publish clone-firm warning lists — search for the bank name on the regulator's site before sending money.
Other warning signs: no legal name on the website, no head-office address, promises of 'guaranteed' returns above prevailing market rates, pressure to move fast, and requests to send funds to a personal account or a crypto wallet 'for compliance reasons'. A licensed bank never asks for either.
A five-step checklist
1. Note the exact legal name and country from the bank's website (not the marketing brand).
2. Search the EBA Credit Institutions Register — the entry should match the legal name.
3. If it is a large bank, verify it also appears on the ECB list of supervised entities.
4. Open the national supervisor's register (BaFin, ACPR, Bank of Italy, FCA, etc.) and confirm licence type, authorisation status and address.
5. Check the national deposit guarantee scheme's list of covered institutions — if the bank is not there, deposits are not protected.
Frequently asked questions
- It is either not a licensed EU credit institution, or it operates under a different licence type (EMI, PI). Ask the entity in writing for its licence type and competent authority, then check that authority's register directly.
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