ECSP register by country: what home state tells you and what it does not

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

What the country breakdown actually measures

The ECSP Register lists European Crowdfunding Service Providers authorised under Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 and groups them by member state. It is natural to read that grouping as a map of where crowdfunding happens. It is not. Under Article 12(1), a legal person that wants to provide crowdfunding services applies to the competent authority of the member state where it is established. The country in the register is therefore the home state: the place whose authority granted the authorisation and, under Article 15(1), supervises the provider afterwards.

That distinction matters for anyone using the register to answer a practical question. If you are an investor in Portugal looking at a platform listed under another country, the listing tells you which regulator stands behind it. It does not tell you whether the platform is entitled to offer you its projects. If you are a project owner choosing between platforms, the home state tells you whose complaint and supervision channels apply, which can matter more than where the platform's website is aimed.

The Regulation also removes one common friction. Under Article 12(12), member states may not require a provider that serves clients cross-border to maintain a physical presence in any state other than the one that authorised it. A single authorisation and a single establishment can therefore support a multi-country business, which is part of why home state and operating footprint can diverge widely.

Why the geography looks the way it does

The register is heavily concentrated. A handful of member states, including France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Lithuania, account for the large majority of entries, and France and Italy alone make up a substantial share. Most member states appear, but with far fewer entries, and the rest of the EEA does not appear in the table at all.

The Regulation applied from 10 November 2021. Providers that were already operating under national law were allowed to continue under Article 48(1) until 10 November 2022 or until they were granted authorisation under Article 12, whichever was sooner. Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/1988 of 12 July 2022 extended that transitional period until 10 November 2023. Italy's securities regulator confirms that the previous national framework, adopted in 2012, remained in force until 10 November 2023. From that point, crowdfunding services for business fall under the Regulation, and the earlier Italian national regime no longer applies.

The pattern in the register is consistent with an explanation based on legacy. Jurisdictions with established national frameworks had experienced platforms ready to apply, and those platforms had until late 2023 to convert. ESMA Q&A 798 confirms that the transitional period was not limited to countries with a dedicated crowdfunding regime: "national law" could also mean other applicable legislation or simply the private law governing crowdfunding transactions in that member state. The Article 48(1) pool was therefore potentially wider than the list of countries with bespoke regimes. The register does not prove the legacy explanation, and other factors such as authority capacity and the attractiveness of a given jurisdiction will also play a part. What the register does show reliably is that a high count for a country reflects how many providers chose it as their home state, not how much crowdfunding capital is raised there.

How a platform gets from its home state to other markets

Authorisation does not by itself extend a provider's reach. Article 18 sets out a notification procedure. A provider that intends to serve clients in another member state submits to the single point of contact of its home state, designated under Article 29(2), a list of the host states, the identity of the people responsible for the services there, the intended start date and any other activities it provides that fall outside the Regulation. The home single point of contact has 10 working days to pass that information to the host authorities and to ESMA, and ESMA enters the host states in the register. The provider may begin serving the host market from the date it receives confirmation of that communication, or at the latest 15 calendar days after submitting its notification.

Article 14(2)(e) requires the register to carry the list of member states in which each provider has notified its intention to provide services, and Article 14(2)(d) requires it to record the services for which the provider is authorised. The host-state field is the one that answers the cross-border question, and it sits on the individual provider entry in the ESMA register rather than in the country totals. The ECSP Register shows the home state and the number of services for each provider, the right place to find candidates. To confirm reach, see the ECSP Passporting Map, which lists every host state each provider is authorised to operate in.

What the service count and the status flag do and do not tell you

Under Article 13(1), an authorisation must specify the crowdfunding services the provider is authorised to provide, and Article 13(2) requires a separate extension request to add services later. Article 14(2)(d) requires the register to record this information. The number shown next to each provider in the tool reflects how many service entries are recorded for that entry. A provider with one recorded service and a provider with eight are not interchangeable, and neither number says anything about size, track record or quality. The point of reading the services is the same as with any licence: confirm that the activity you are about to use is within what the provider is authorised to do.

The status flag deserves the same care. The Regulation gives home authorities the power to withdraw an authorisation in listed circumstances under Article 17, including where the provider expressly renounces it, or has not provided crowdfunding services for nine successive months and is also no longer involved in administering existing contracts. Under Article 14(3), a withdrawal remains published in the register for five years. That is why Inactive entries remain visible long after a provider has stopped operating.

Duplicates are a smaller but real reading hazard. The register is organised by entry, and the same group can appear more than once under slightly different names or capitalisations. When you search by name, check every variant and read each entry separately before drawing a conclusion about what the group can do.

Where the Regulation stops

A provider's absence from the register does not always mean it is operating unlawfully. Article 1(2) sets out what the Regulation does not apply to. It excludes crowdfunding services provided to project owners that are consumers, and it excludes crowdfunding offers with a consideration above EUR 5 000 000, calculated over 12 months and including loans raised through the platform and certain securities offerings by the same project owner. Offers above that line are not governed by the Regulation and fall to other rules. The register therefore describes the population of authorised providers under this specific framework. It is not a list of everyone who raises money from the public on the internet.

The practical conclusion is the same whichever role you occupy. Investors should confirm authorisation, scope of services and host-state notification before committing funds. Project owners should confirm that the platform's authorisation covers the service they need, and which authority they would turn to. Compliance teams monitoring the sector should treat the register as a starting point for identifying home states and supervisors, not as a complete picture of who is active in their market.

The ECSP register in context

The ECSP Register is one of several ESMA registers that give effect to EU financial supervision. For how ESMA fits alongside the other European supervisory authorities, see ESMA, EBA, EIOPA: who does what in EU financial supervision. For the wider regulatory landscape, see EU financial regulation in 2026.

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