Skip to content
We donate 10% of our affiliate revenue to charity. Learn more

How to check a bank or broker is licensed in Greece

Before sending money to any bank, app, broker or “investment opportunity”, confirm it’s licensed — it takes about two minutes in a public register. Banks and payment apps → Bank of Greece. Investment firms → HCMC (and check its warning list). EU-passported firms → the EU-wide ESMA/EBA registers. If you can’t find it, that’s your answer.

Step 1 — is it a bank or an EMI/payment firm? Check the Bank of Greece register of credit institutions, payment institutions and e-money institutions (bankofgreece.gr, “supervised institutions”). This also tells you whether it’s a deposit-guaranteed bank or a safeguarded EMI — see safeguarded ≠ guaranteed.

Step 2 — is it an investment firm, fund or platform? Check the HCMC register (hcmc.gr) of licensed investment firms, fund managers and crowdfunding platforms — and check the HCMC public warning list of unauthorised firms.

Step 3 — is it an EU-passported firm from another country? Cross-check the EU-wide registers: ESMA for investment firms and funds, EBA for banks and payment/e-money institutions. Many legitimate providers are licensed in one EU country and serve Greece on a passport — the register confirms it and tells you the home state.

Step 4 — which scheme covers you? If the provider is an EU branch or passported firm, the home-country deposit-guarantee or investor-compensation scheme applies — confirm the home country and that its cover is the €100,000 / €30,000 you expect.

Red flags that should stop you

  • It appears on the HCMC warning list.
  • Pressure and urgency (“act now or miss out”).
  • Guaranteed high returns — no legitimate firm guarantees this.
  • Requests to send funds to a personal account or a crypto wallet.
  • No licence number, or it refuses to confirm its deposit-guarantee status.

How not to get cheated

legitimacy is checkable in a public register. If a provider can’t be found on the Bank of Greece, HCMC, ESMA or EBA — or sits on the HCMC warning list — that is the decision, no matter how polished the website or how convincing the “advisor”. Two minutes of checking beats any sales pitch.

Related

who supervises your money · safeguarded ≠ guaranteed · deposit guarantee · two rules against scams

This is general information, not financial advice. Registers and warning lists are the authoritative source — check bankofgreece.gr, hcmc.gr, registers.esma.europa.eu and eba.europa.eu. WTP Finance is informational only.

Opracowanie i weryfikacja: Redakcja WeekTopPick · Jak weryfikujemy dane