The EBA register is the directory listing the credit and payment institutions authorised in the European Economic Area. Anyone who wants to know whether a provider really holds an authorisation looks there. That very act of looking is what a scheme targets, one the German financial regulator BaFin warned about on October 9, 2026: the operators of a supposed European bank directed prospective customers to check their authorisation in a register that sat under their own domain.

BaFin’s wording is this: “The register displayed on this website is not an official EBA register and appears to be forged.” It also names the address where the genuine directory sits: euclid.eba.europa.eu. The lesson is an uncomfortable one, because it demands one…