Using the FCA Firm Checker to confirm escrow services are regulated
We’re pleased to see the Financial Conduct Authority launch a new way for people to check their financial services provider is appropriately regulated.
25 March 2026 | by Security for Expenses
If you are a surveyor advising a client, you have a professional duty of care to suggest only firms that handle funds in accordance with UK financial regulations. If you are a builder, contractor, homeowner or adjoining owner using a service to safeguard your money, the right firm offers peace of mind while property works are carried out.
How to be confident in the firm you choose
All firms in the UK offering regulated financial services must be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)* and supervised for anti-money laundering by an authorised supervisory body, usually the FCA or HMRC. They undergo strict and ongoing compliance checks to ensure they are undertaking their duties responsibly.
Stakeholder or escrow services where funds are transferred from a payer to a payee come under The Payment Services Regulations 2019 (PSRs). They always require registration and supervision, even if provided as part of a package with other services. Anyone providing a payment service without proper authorisation is committing an offence and could be fined or imprisoned for up to two years.
Until recently, to be sure a firm was regulated, you had to ask for proof directly from the firm or get to grips with the FCA Register. But the recently launched FCA Firm Checker makes it more straightforward to check if a firm is appropriately regulated.
Access the FCA Firm Checker here – www.fca.org.uk/consumers/fca-firm-checker
We are committed as an organisation to advancing industry standards to safeguard people using escrow, so we welcome this effort from the FCA to provide extra clarity and transparency.
How to use the FCA Firm Checker
If you want to know if a firm is regulated for stakeholder or escrow services, enter its name in the Checker and look for the service category “Payments and e-money, for example, online wallets and money transfers”. Check that the firm has permission to “Transfer money for you without you holding an account”.
As shown here, the Checker shows that Security for Expenses Ltd. is a small payment institution regulated by the FCA to provide payments and e-money, etc. with permission to “Transfer money for you without you holding an account”.
Exempt Professional Firms
The results can be more complicated if the firm is an Exempt Professional Firm (EPF) because they are regulated by a Designated Professional Body (DPB) rather than the FCA. In this case, the Checker will provide the contact details of the relevant DPB and urge you to check directly which services they authorise. DPBs are quite restricted in what they can authorise a firm to do. RICS, for example, can only give exemption for general insurance distribution activities in the UK and not payment services.
If you have any questions at all on how to check if a company is regulated to offer escrow services, please do get in touch.