Is this bank real? Regulators publish public tools that can help answer that before you send money or share account numbers. The sources behind this piece mostly point to those tools. They do not walk through each one step by step, so this guide says plainly where the detail stops.

Magnifying glass held over a laptop screen, symbolizing a quick public check of whether a financial firm is genuine before sending money.
A magnifying glass held over a laptop screen, a stand-in for checking a financial firm in public records before trusting it.

Four agencies come up again and again: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), FINRA, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Each lists a lookup or registration resource on its site. Start with the one that matches the kind of firm you are checking.

Why verifying a financial firm matters

The FDIC has a consumer page on scammers and fake banks, first dated October 2023. It also has a page on bank impersonation scams, dated June 2025. Two pages on the same subject, about twenty months apart, suggest the problem has not gone away.

The OCC defines an unauthorized bank as any financial institution operating without a license. That is the test the OCC gives. A name that sounds official does not satisfy it. The copies of the FDIC pages available for this article cut off before their advice on spotting fake banks, so read those pages directly for the tactics they describe.

Checking a bank

The OCC's site lists a Financial Institution Search and Financial Institution Lists. It also links to a bank complaint option and to HelpWithMyBank.gov for general banking questions. If a firm says it is a national bank, these are the places to look for it.

A missing result should make you slow down. By itself it does not prove fraud. The sources do not explain state licensing checks, so if a firm claims a state charter, you will need to look beyond this article for how to confirm it.

One gap matters a lot here. The sources do not explain how to confirm that a bank is FDIC insured, and this article does not cover it. The FDIC's own site is the place to look, and the two scam pages linked above are a reasonable starting point.

Checking a credit union

The NCUA is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1970. It charters and regulates federal credit unions and insures deposits at federally insured ones. Its site lists a Credit Union Locator, a Fraud Prevention Center, and MyCreditUnion.gov.

The NCUA's Share Insurance Fund provides up to $250,000 of federal share insurance, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. As general context, that coverage only helps if your credit union is federally insured, so check that first. The sources do not describe what the locator shows for a match or a non-match.

Checking brokers, advisers, and investment firms

FINRA lists BrokerCheck, and its Check Registration page sits under Protect Your Money. There is also a BrokerCheck FAQ. The sources do not explain how to read BrokerCheck results, so start with that FAQ.

The SEC publishes data files on registered investment advisers and Exempt Reporting Advisers, drawn mainly from Form ADV. The files come as zip archives containing a spreadsheet. Column headings refer to specific Form ADV items, and the SEC points readers to the Form ADV for full field descriptions. The page gives the coverage as July 2006 through October 2026. That end date looks odd, so check the dates on the SEC page itself before relying on the data being current.

A practical checklist and what to do next

The sources give no official step-by-step process. The steps below are general common sense built on the tools they name. They are not a regulator procedure.

  1. Write down the exact legal name of the firm, not just the brand name on its website.
  2. Pick the tool that fits: OCC search for a national bank, NCUA locator for a credit union, BrokerCheck or Check Registration for brokers and sellers, SEC data for advisers.
  3. Type the name into the tool yourself. Do not follow a link sent by the firm.
  4. Compare what you find with what the firm told you. If the name is missing, treat that as a reason to stop and ask questions.
  5. Check FDIC insured status on the FDIC's site. This article does not explain how.

The sources do not list warning signs from customer interactions, such as unsolicited contact or requests for payment or login details. As general advice, not drawn from them, it is sensible to find contact details through an official tool rather than from whoever contacted you.

If something looks wrong, the OCC lists a bank complaint option, and the SEC lists a Submit a Tip or Complaint option. The sources say nothing more about reporting a suspected fake bank. A short written note of what you searched and what you found may help if you report it later. For advice on your own situation, talk to a qualified professional.

Please seek a professional. This article is general information, not financial, tax or insurance advice. Please seek a licensed financial, tax or insurance professional about your own situation.