Regulation

& Consumer protection

In order to be allowed to accept client funds and provide financial services, an explicit authorisation by the respective supervisory authority is required. Only after an extensive examination process, which among other things also assesses the qualification of the acting persons, is a corresponding authorisation granted. If a company provides financial services without having a corresponding licence, this is called illicit business.

We have compiled an overview of the most important supervisory authorities for you. From here you can quickly and conveniently access the websites of the authorities responsible for the respective countries.

If you are looking for CFD and FX providers regulated in the EU, you will find them here.
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Important Notice

Current warnings from the supervisory authorities can be found here in this section or in the news section.

New: Information offer on consumer protection (JC 2022 03)

Further sources of information: Red Flag · Warning messages
European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)
Europe

Here you can find important information on consumer protection as well as warnings from the supervisory authority against unfair offers.
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Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin)
Germany

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority better known by its abbreviation BaFin is the financial regulatory authority for Germany. It is an independent federal institution with headquarters in Bonn and Frankfurt and falls under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
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Here you will find important information on consumer protection as well as warnings from the supervisory authority against unfair offers.
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Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec)
Cypress

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, better known as CySEC, is the financial regulatory agency of Cyprus. As an EU member state, CySEC's financial regulations and operations comply with the European MiFID financial harmonization law.
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Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA)
Malta

The Malta Financial Services Authority is a financial regulator of Malta. The MFSA was founded in 2002 when it assumed the responsibilities of the Central Bank of Malta, the Malta Stock Exchange, and the Malta Financial Services Centre
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Finanstilsynet (DFSA)
Denmark

The Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (DFSA) (Danish: Finanstilsynet) is the financial regulatory authority of the Danish government responsible for the regulation of financial markets in Denmark. Finanstilsynet is part of the Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs and also acts as secretariat for the Financial Business Council, the Danish Securities Council and the Money and Pension Panel.
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Central Bank of Ireland (CBI)
Ireland

The Central Bank of Ireland (Irish: Banc Ceannais na hÉireann) is Ireland's central bank, and as such part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). It is the country's financial services regulator for most categories of financial firms. It was the issuer of Irish pound banknotes and coinage until the introduction of the Euro currency, and now provides this service for the European Central Bank.
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Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV)
Spain

The National Securities Market Commission (Spanish: Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores) (often abbreviated as CNMV) is the Spanish government agency responsible for the financial regulation of the securities markets in Spain. It is an independent agency that falls under the Ministry of Economy.
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Ελληνική Επιτροπή Κεφαλαιαγοράς (HCMC)
Greece

The Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC; Greek: Επιτροπή Κεφαλαιαγοράς), established as a legal entity by Greek Law in 1991 and organized by the Greek Law 2324 of 1995, aims to "ensure the protection and the orderly and efficient operation of the capital market, which is crucial for the growth of the national economy" of Greece
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Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM)
Netherlands

The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets is the financial services regulatory authority for the Netherlands. Its role is comparable to the role of the SEC in the United States.
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Finanzmarktaufsicht (FMA)
Austria

The Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) is the independent, integrated supervisory authority for the Austrian financial market and is established as an institution under public law. It is responsible for the supervision of credit institutions, payment institutions, insurance companies, pension funds, occupational pension funds, investment funds, licensed securities service providers, rating agencies and securities exchanges as well as capital market prospectuses.
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Regulation and consumer protection
Consumers who purchase financial products, use financial services or plan to do so need protection. Consumer protection is, therefore, an essential social task - especially for the supervisory authorities. In consumer protection, the tasks are divided: The respective financial market supervisory authority carries out collective consumer protection; it protects the interests of the totality of consumers in the financial market. On the other hand, the protection of individual consumers is the task of the ombudsmen, arbitration boards and the ordinary courts. The supervisory authorities want to protect the totality of consumers adequately. A specialised department deals with the diverse consumer protection-related topics that concern the supervisory authority.

Every day, many warnings are issued by the supervisory authorities against fraudulent offers. It feels like there are more of them every day, and for inexperienced investors, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between severe and dubious offers.

DDH has set itself the task of helping to ensure that black sheep have fewer opportunities to implement their dishonest schemes. In the spirit of active consumer protection, one of our goals is to develop DDH into a central research and information platform that should be visited as a first port of call before deciding to enter a new business relationship.

For current warnings, you can access the respective publications of the supervisory authorities from here. You are also welcome to take a look at the news section. Under the category Consumer Protection, you will find a selection of current news. 
We have compiled a current overview of publications by the supervisory authorities for you on this page.