Permission comes before price
A headline rate is worth little if the firm behind it cannot be matched to a public register. Readers weighing cost and the safety of the money start with a plainer question: is this firm allowed to lend here, and who is the party that signs the agreement?
The Loans rankings set brands side by side, and the register entry decides how much weight each line can carry. A permission reference lets you match a trading name to a legal entity on an official list. A missing reference is not proof of trouble, but it leaves a question worth closing before you send documents or sign.
Direct lender or marketplace
A direct lender puts out its own money and carries the credit risk. A marketplace introduces you to a third-party lender and passes the application on. Most brands in this guide lend directly: Abhi, Absa Ghana Instant Loan, Access Financial Services, Accessifi, Achieve, Acredit, ACTB Savings and Loans, Addiko Bank mKredit, Addiko Bank Srbija, Advance Caribbean, Advans Banque Congo, Advans Cote d'Ivoire and Aerocash.
Acorn Finance and AdaKami work as marketplaces instead. That changes the question you should be asking. With a marketplace, the contract is with the lender you are matched to, so the permission that matters belongs to that party rather than to the site you typed into. The Acorn Finance review is worth reading for the same reason: it shows how the account behaves once the lender is chosen.
A single register entry
Acredit lends directly and appears on the Registry of Moneylenders run by the Ministry of Law in Singapore under 69/2026.
Abhi lends directly and holds a Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan permission, SC/NBFC-219/APL/IFS/2021-02, which the Abhi review page can be read alongside. AdaKami operates as a marketplace under Otoritas Jasa Keuangan with S-1108/N/B.213/2018.
Search the reference rather than the brand name. Trading names shift with marketing, legal names rarely do, and registers are organised by entity.
Permission state by state
Acorn Finance shows how permission works where lending is licensed per state. Its entry lists an Oregon consumer finance licence, 1817022, a California finance lenders licence, 60DBO-83199 and an Arizona consumer lender licence, CL-1007809, among others.
The same pattern continues through Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and West Virginia. Each is a separate reference, and each covers a single state, so a permission where you live is the one to check.
Read the wording, not just the presence of a number. Some entries are licences to lend, some are registrations, some are filings by loan brokers, and one covers residential mortgages rather than the product you may want. Permission for a single product is not permission for another.
Running the check
Take the legal entity name from the agreement rather than the advert, then look for its reference on the comparison page and type that reference into the regulator's own register.
Check the status and the wording of the permission, and note which product and which territory it covers. A register entry that says mortgage lending tells you nothing about a short-term cash loan.
Record when you checked and who confirmed what. Permissions lapse, move and get amended, so a reference that matched last month is not a promise for today.
Where the register entry is missing
Several direct lenders in this comparison show a lender kind and little else: Absa Ghana Instant Loan, Access Financial Services, Accessifi, Achieve, ACTB Savings and Loans, Addiko Bank mKredit, Addiko Bank Srbija, Advance Caribbean, Advans Banque Congo, Advans Cote d'Ivoire and Aerocash.
Treat that as a prompt rather than a verdict. Ask for the regulator and the reference before you hand over documents or bank details. The Accessifi review, the Achieve review and the Absa Ghana Instant Loan review show how each account runs once the paperwork is in.
Tie the register to the cost
Once permission is settled, compare the cost lines on their own terms: what you pay, over what period, and what you owe at the end. Sort by that rather than by the headline rate, and check the Personal loans and Payday and short-term loans rankings for the same detail set.
A permission is a floor, not a recommendation. It tells you the firm is allowed to operate, nothing about how it treats a customer who falls behind, so pair the register check with the account terms and the account reviews before you commit.