The ECSP register: what it is, how to read it, and why authorisation status matters

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified legal professional for advice specific to your situation.

The ECSP register is the authoritative source for verifying whether a crowdfunding platform is legally permitted to operate in the EU. It lists every European Crowdfunding Service Provider authorised under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503, sourced from ESMA’s own data and updated weekly. For current data on the number of authorised providers and their distribution across member states, see the ECSP register.
Authorisation status is not a formality. The regulation replaced a patchwork of national regimes that varied significantly across member states. A platform operating without ECSP authorisation, or one whose authorisation has lapsed, is not legally permitted to provide crowdfunding services under the EU framework regardless of any prior national registration it may hold.
Each ECSP is authorised for specific services, not for crowdfunding generally. The register records which of the permitted service categories each provider holds, including whether it is authorised to use special purpose vehicles or to provide payment services. An investor or project owner engaging with a platform should check not just that the platform is authorised, but that it is authorised for the specific service being used.
Passporting allows authorised ECSPs to operate across all EEA member states from a single home state authorisation. The passported countries listed for each provider tell you where it is legally operating on a cross border basis. A platform marketing services into a member state where it holds no home state authorisation and has not passported is operating without a legal basis in that jurisdiction.
The inactive status designation matters and is easy to miss. A provider listed as inactive has either had its authorisation withdrawn, allowed it to lapse, or is otherwise no longer permitted to operate. Platforms carrying an inactive status should not be treated as authorised providers, regardless of any prior activity or ongoing marketing.

What the ECSP regulation created

Before Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 entered into application in November 2021, crowdfunding platforms in the EU operated under widely divergent national frameworks. A platform authorised in one member state had no automatic right to offer services in another. The obligations imposed on platforms varied significantly depending on the jurisdiction, creating an uneven playing field and meaningful barriers to cross border capital raising.

The ECSP Regulation addressed this by establishing a single EU wide framework for business crowdfunding, covering both lending based and investment based models. Platforms that obtain ECSP authorisation from a national competent authority in their home member state receive a single licence valid across the entire EEA, subject to notification procedures. The regulation imposes uniform requirements on governance, investor protection, default risk management, and transparency, regardless of where the platform is established.

ESMA maintains the public register of all authorised ECSPs, updated on a weekly basis from data provided by national competent authorities. That register is the resource this article accompanies.

What the register contains and how to read it

The register lists each authorised provider with several fields that are worth understanding individually.

Name and trading name. The registered legal name of the authorised entity is what appears in the authorisation. Some platforms operate under a commercial trading name that differs from their legal entity name. The entry for 1001PACT, for example, notes that it trades as Lita. When verifying a platform’s status, searching by trading name alone may not locate the correct entry; using the legal entity name provides the definitive result.

Home member state. This is the jurisdiction in which the platform is incorporated and from which it obtained its ECSP authorisation. The national competent authority in the home member state is the platform’s primary supervisor for ECSP purposes. For French platforms, that is the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). For Italian platforms, the Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB). For Spanish platforms, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV). The supervisory relationship and the enforcement architecture both flow from the home member state.

Authorisation date. The date on which the national competent authority granted the platform’s ECSP authorisation. This matters for two reasons: it confirms that the platform completed the authorisation process rather than relying on a transitional arrangement, and it establishes the timeline from which the platform’s regulatory obligations began to run.

Authorised services. The ECSP Regulation distinguishes between the types of crowdfunding services a platform may provide. The permitted categories include the facilitation of lending, the facilitation of investment in transferable securities and admitted instruments, and ancillary services such as payment services and the use of special purpose vehicles (SPVs) for the provision of crowdfunding services. Each provider’s entry lists the specific services for which it holds authorisation. A platform may hold authorisation for one or several of these categories, and it may only provide services within the scope of what it is authorised for.

The SPV permission deserves particular attention. Special purpose vehicles are used by some platforms as an intermediate structure between investors and the underlying project, aggregating investor positions rather than issuing direct claims. The use of an SPV in this context is only permitted where the platform holds explicit authorisation for it, and only one illiquid or indivisible asset may be offered through a single SPV. An investor participating in an SPV structured offering through a platform that lacks this authorisation is in a legally irregular position that may affect the enforceability of their rights.

Cross border passporting. The passported countries listed for each provider are the member states in which it is operating on a cross border basis under its single home state licence, following the notification procedures set out in the regulation. A provider passported into a member state has notified its home NCA of its intention to provide services there, and the home NCA has forwarded that notification to the relevant competent authority in the host member state. This is not a separate authorisation; it is an extension of the home state licence into other jurisdictions.

The absence of a country from a provider’s passported list does not necessarily mean the platform does not accept clients from that country; it may reflect the platform’s commercial decision about where to actively market services. But where a platform is actively soliciting business in a member state in which it neither has its home authorisation nor has passported, that is a regulatory issue.

Active or inactive status. This is the most consequential field in the register for due diligence purposes. A provider marked as inactive is no longer authorised to operate as an ECSP. This may reflect a voluntary surrender of authorisation, a withdrawal by the competent authority, or an administrative lapse. Inactive status means the platform has no current legal basis to provide crowdfunding services under the EU framework.

The geography of EU crowdfunding authorisation

The distribution of authorised ECSPs across the EEA reflects both the scale of existing crowdfunding markets and the speed with which national competent authorities processed authorisation applications after the regulation entered into application. For current figures on provider counts by member state, see the ECSP register, which is updated weekly.

France has historically had the largest concentration of authorised providers. This reflects France’s established history of crowdfunding activity prior to the ECSP Regulation, the AMF’s experience with the sector, and the relatively high number of platforms that were operating under the prior French regulatory framework and transitioned to ECSP authorisation. Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands also have significant concentrations of active providers, with the Netherlands punching above its weight relative to population, reflecting its position as a hub for fintech and alternative finance in the EEA.

Germany has relatively few active providers despite being the EU’s largest economy. Several German domiciled platforms appear in the register with inactive status, suggesting that some platforms that previously operated under the German regulatory framework either could not meet ECSP authorisation requirements or chose not to seek authorisation. Platforms operating in the German crowdfunding market should be checked carefully against the register.

The Baltic states, particularly Lithuania and Latvia, have a notable presence relative to their size. This reflects in part the same pattern seen in the payment services sector: competitive NCA processing, a supportive legal environment for fintech, and a cluster of platforms that passported broadly across the EEA after obtaining home state authorisation.

What inactive status means in practice

It is worth dwelling on the inactive designation because its implications are significant and not always obvious to investors or project owners using a crowdfunding platform.

A platform with inactive status has lost its legal basis to provide ECSP services. This does not necessarily mean that existing investments or loans arranged through the platform are void; the legal analysis of what happens to in flight transactions when a platform loses its authorisation is complex and depends on the terms of the relevant contracts, the governing law, and the actions of the platform and its clients after authorisation lapsed. But it does mean that the platform cannot legally onboard new investors, raise new capital for new projects, or collect new payments in its capacity as an ECSP.

For investors considering a platform, checking active status in the register before engaging is a basic step that is easy to overlook when a platform continues to present itself publicly without making its authorisation status visible. The register is the definitive source. A platform that is not in the register as an active provider is not a legally authorised ECSP.

ECSP authorisation and what it does not guarantee

The existence of ECSP authorisation is not an endorsement of a platform’s investment products, its underwriting standards, its historical performance, or the creditworthiness of the projects it facilitates. The regulation imposes requirements on platform governance, investor disclosures, and operational conduct, but it does not assess the quality of individual crowdfunding projects or guarantee any return to investors.

The ECSP Regulation introduced specific investor protection provisions, including a mandatory appropriateness assessment for non-sophisticated investors that incorporates an entry knowledge test, a simulation of their ability to bear loss, and a mandatory reflection period of four calendar days during which a non-sophisticated investor can revoke an offer without giving a reason and without incurring a penalty. These protections are obligations on the platform; the platform bears the responsibility for implementing them correctly, and supervision of compliance sits with the home state NCA.

For investors, the practical implication is that ECSP authorisation tells you the platform is legally permitted to operate and is subject to regulatory oversight, but does not substitute for the investor’s own assessment of individual investment opportunities. Key information documents (KIDs) are required for each crowdfunding project offered under the regulation; these documents are the primary disclosure tool and should be read carefully before any investment decision. Notably, KIDs are not subject to prior approval by competent authorities; the responsibility for their accuracy rests with the project owner and the platform.

How to verify a platform before engaging

The steps for verifying a crowdfunding platform’s status against the ECSP register are straightforward.

Search for the platform by its legal entity name, not its trading name or brand. If you only know the trading name, cross referencing against the platform’s own website for its legal entity name will usually locate the correct register entry.

Check the active or inactive status. Any platform without a current active designation is not legally authorised to provide ECSP services and should be treated accordingly.

Confirm the authorised services. If you are participating in an SPV structured offering, check that the platform holds explicit authorisation for the use of special purpose vehicles. If you are engaging with a platform in a member state that is not its home jurisdiction, check that it has passported into that jurisdiction.

Note the competent authority. If you have a complaint or concern about a platform, the home state NCA is the body to contact. The AMF for French platforms, CONSOB for Italian platforms, and equivalent bodies in other member states.

The register is updated weekly, so the data it contains reflects recent changes to authorisation status. A verification that was valid a month ago may not reflect the current position.

The monitoring picture for ECSPs

For platforms themselves, the ECSP Regulation imposes ongoing reporting obligations to their home state NCA, including annual reports on the crowdfunding services provided and the regulatory capital maintained. The regulation also requires platforms to notify their NCA of any material changes to their business model, governance structure, or the services they provide. Platforms expanding into new service categories or new member states need to update their authorisation or complete the relevant notification procedures before doing so, not after.

The ECSP Regulation sits within a broader EU financial regulatory landscape that continues to evolve. ESMA issues supervisory convergence guidance on the regulation’s application, and the Commission conducts a review of the regulation’s functioning that may lead to amendments. Platforms and institutional participants in the crowdfunding market should monitor ESMA’s publications for guidance that affects operational obligations, including any updates to the requirements for key information documents or changes to investor protection thresholds.

For a broader overview of the EU financial regulatory framework within which ECSP authorisation sits, see EU financial regulation in 2026. For the supervisory architecture that governs how ESMA and national competent authorities interact on ECSP oversight, see ESMA, EBA, and EIOPA: who does what.

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