How to Verify a Seychelles Financial or VASP Licence
A certificate of incorporation proves that a company was formed. It does not prove that the company still exists, that it holds a financial services licence, or that it has any authority to run the platform your client is being asked to fund.
That distinction appears repeatedly in FSA warnings and regulatory updates. In a warning published on 29 July 2026, the Seychelles Financial Services Authority referred to an entity identified on third party websites as the alleged operating company of a virtual asset trading platform. According to the notice, the entity had previously been incorporated in Seychelles, had never been authorised under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2024, and had been struck off and dissolved in May 2023. The FSA also stated that the platform was not linked to any pending application or subsisting authorisation to operate in or from Seychelles.
The pattern is ordinary. A company name, a scanned certificate and a Seychelles reference stay online long after the corporate and regulatory position underneath them has changed.
Verification means four facts, not one
A file is only complete when all four of the following are confirmed:
- The legal entity still exists.
- It is in good standing.
- It currently holds the licence or status required.
- That licence covers the activity, the trade name and the website in front of the customer.
Any one of these on its own proves very little.
Incorporation, good standing and licensing are not the same thing
A certificate of incorporation records that an entity came into existence, with its name, number and date. It is a historical document. Without current registry evidence behind it, it says nothing about today.
Good standing is a registry status, normally evidenced by a current Certificate of Good Standing. An official search can provide additional current information on the company’s registry status. The FSA’s Registry Section administers International Business Companies and handles the post registration side of that work — annual fees, dissolutions, Certificates of Good Standing and official searches. Good standing does not, by itself, establish that a company holds a financial licence or is authorised to carry on a regulated activity.
A licence is a separate authorisation issued under financial services legislation. It sets out which regulated activities the entity may carry on, and normally carries conditions, reporting duties, substance requirements and ongoing supervision.
So a Seychelles company can be incorporated but unlicensed; in good standing but unlicensed; licensed for one activity and not another; under assessment rather than approved; formerly licensed but now suspended, revoked or surrendered; or dissolved while its name continues to appear on someone’s website.
Step 1 — Confirm the entity still exists
Start from the full legal name, not the brand on the homepage. Record the registration number, entity type, incorporation date, registered office, registered agent, any former names, the trade names in use, and the company named in the website’s terms and payment instructions.
The Registration Division operates a public Business and Company Search covering information on the Seychelles Business Register, and holds the underlying registered documents. For IBCs, the FSA runs a separate Struck Off and Dissolved IBC Search.
A no result search is not positive evidence of active status. It means only that the company was not shown as struck off or dissolved in the public database at the time of the search — that database covers removed entities rather than active ones, and the Registrar does not accept responsibility for errors or omissions in it. For anything material — account opening, share transfer, a licensing application, a technology contract — obtain a Certificate of Official Search or other current registry confirmation. A certificate issued months or years ago should not be recycled.
Step 2 — Find it on the correct FSA register
The FSA regulates non bank financial services and publishes regulated entities by sector: capital markets, fiduciary services, insurance, collective investment schemes, fintech and others. A broker, securities dealer or investment business belongs in the capital markets listing, searched by legal entity name.
Finding a similar name is where most checks go wrong. Compare the exact legal name, the trade name, the address, the website the FSA records, the contact details and the licence category. The capital markets listing frequently records the legal entity together with its trade name, contact details and website. That matters in both directions: a genuine licensee may face customers under a different brand, and an unrelated site may claim to be a genuine licensee.
A licence held by one group company does not travel to another. The contracting entity and the licensed entity should match. Where payment is made to another entity — a payment institution, a collecting agent, a group treasury company — or into a segregated client money account, the arrangement must be clearly disclosed, documented and independently verified, not assumed.
Step 3 — Check what the licence actually permits
Appearing on an FSA register does not make everything the company offers regulated. A Securities Dealer Licence is not a VASP licence. An International Corporate Services Licence is not authority to run an FX or CFD book. Incorporation under the IBC Act authorises nothing at all in this sense.
Test the permitted activity against the products advertised, the services in the client agreement, the flow of client money, the custody arrangement, the execution model and the regulatory claims on the site. Where a business mixes securities, derivatives, custody, payments and virtual assets, expect more than one authorisation to be in play rather than a single catch all “financial licence”.
Step 4 — Separate a VASP licence from a VASP application
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2024 applies to persons providing virtual asset services in or from Seychelles. The FSA’s position is that a Seychelles incorporated company cannot escape the requirement by pointing to offshore operations, no local staff and no local premises — incorporation itself creates the licensing nexus.
Four activity categories are open to applicants: virtual asset wallet provider, virtual asset exchange, virtual asset broking and virtual asset investment provider. Only Seychelles domestic companies and IBCs may apply. Individuals may not.
This is where most misreadings happen. Businesses already operating before the Act commenced on 1 September 2024 could continue only if a complete application was filed within the transitional window, which closed on 31 December 2024. The FSA’s public VASP page shows licensed entities separately from those under assessment, and states that applicants under assessment may continue operating pending determination.
An entity shown only under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Assessment section should not be described as holding an issued VASP licence unless the FSA has separately confirmed that a licence has been granted. Read the section heading and the field labels rather than the page title: a page presented around licensed VASPs, or an approval date recorded against an application, is not in itself evidence that a licence has been issued. In marketing copy, in a bank’s KYB pack and in your own due diligence memo, distinguish licensed, transitional applicant, under assessment, application refused, application withdrawn, licence suspended and licence surrendered, and use the term the FSA uses. A new business outside the transitional arrangement must be approved before it starts.
Step 5 — Match entity, brand, website and contracting party
Four identifiers, compared side by side: the entity on the register, the trade name the customer sees, the domain the regulator records or the licensee confirms, and the company named in the client agreement, privacy policy, account opening forms and payment instructions.
Treat the following as reasons to stop and ask: the FSA records a different website; the site names several group companies without saying which one serves the customer; deposits are requested in the name of an entity whose role is not explained; the terms still name a renamed or dissolved company; the licence number displayed belongs to someone else; or the site says “regulated in Seychelles” without naming a licence type or a licence holder.
A real company name can be copied. So can a real licence number. The domain and the contracting party are what make the register entry mean anything.
Step 6 — Read the regulatory updates, not just the register
The FSA’s regulatory updates carry the status changes a register snapshot will miss: surrendered licences, suspensions and revocations, terminated securities dealer representatives, refused and withdrawn VASP applications, unauthorised business warnings, strike offs and dissolutions, and winding up arrangements.
Recent examples make the point. In July 2026 the FSA published the surrender of a securities dealer licence and its associated representative licence with effect from 17 July 2026, alongside a series of representative termination notices. On 23 July 2026 it published a winding up notice concerning a virtual asset exchange operator, setting out that entity’s transitional VASP position and the timetable for ceasing exchange services.
A licence certificate with no expiry date, or a screenshot of an old register page, does not by itself prove that the authorisation remains current.
Claims that do not survive a check
“Registered in Seychelles.” At most, a company was formed. Not a financial authorisation.
“Regulated under the IBC Act.” The IBC Act is company legislation.
“Our application has been approved.” This may mean only that a complete application has been accepted into the assessment process. Ask whether a licence has actually been issued, and verify the current status.
“Our group is licensed.” Name the licensed entity. A parent, sister or overseas affiliate holding a licence does not cover the company signing your contract.
“The website is operated from Seychelles.” A footer, a governing law clause or a privacy policy is not regulatory evidence.
“The certificate has no expiry date.” Licences are surrendered, suspended and revoked; companies are struck off and dissolved.
Why banks, EMIs and platform providers ask
A verification file that holds up under review usually contains a recent Certificate of Good Standing, supported by an official search where current registry particulars are needed; the certificate of incorporation and constitutional documents; current directors, shareholders and beneficial ownership; the current FSA register entry; the licence certificate and permitted activities; confirmation of trade names and websites; website terms naming the correct entity; an explanation of former names and group structure; and copies of any regulatory notice affecting status.
Where the corporate documents, business model, website, expected payment flows and regulatory status do not align, bank and EMI onboarding may be delayed, trigger additional enquiries or result in rejection. The same inconsistencies surface in brokerage technology onboarding. MetaTrader 5 supports configurations aligned to different regulatory models, but the platform is software — it does not supply the operator’s authorisation. Resolve the discrepancies before the application goes in, not after compliance has found them.
Ten-point pre-onboarding checklist
- Legal name — identical across registry, contract and payment documents?
- Existence — struck off, dissolved or in winding up?
- Good standing — recent Certificate of Good Standing on file, with an official search where current particulars are needed?
- Correct register — listed under the sector matching the business?
- Current status — licensed, under assessment, suspended, surrendered, revoked, refused, withdrawn?
- Permitted activity — does the authorisation cover what is being sold?
- Trade name — does the customer facing brand tie back to the licensed entity?
- Website — does the domain match what the regulator records or the licensee confirms?
- Contract and payments — is the customer contracting with the verified licensed entity, and paying either that entity or a recipient whose relationship to it has been disclosed and verified?
- Notices — have recent warnings, surrenders, terminations and winding up announcements been reviewed?
The standard to apply
A Seychelles company is not regulated because it can produce a certificate or mention the FSA. The test is the current entity, the current licence, the permitted activity and the live website — and all four have to agree.
FinPro Consulting advises financial businesses on Seychelles company formation, licence planning, entity and licence verification, bank and EMI onboarding preparation, website compliance and brokerage infrastructure documentation.
Sources checked as of 31 July 2026: Seychelles Financial Services Authority Regulatory Updates, VASP FAQs, Licensed VASPs and Assessment page, Capital Markets register, Struck Off and Dissolved IBC Search, and the Seychelles Registration Division Business and Company Search. Regulatory and corporate status may change after publication.
Company status and regulatory requirements change. Verify against current official records and, where the position matters, obtain written confirmation from the regulator or a licensed corporate service provider. This article is general information and is not legal, regulatory or investment advice.
