Editor

Helen Marsden

Editor

Helen has reported on retail financial services and consumer credit in the UK for fifteen years. She signs off every story on this site and is responsible for corrections.

Beat: Editorial standards, publication decisions and corrections
Based in: London
Years reporting: 15
Joined The Fraud Center: January 2023
Reports in: English

Areas of expertise

Retail financial services
Consumer credit
Defamation and privacy compliance
Corrections policy

Training and background

NCTJ Diploma in Journalism
Fifteen years reporting UK retail finance
Responsible for legal review sign-off

How this journalist works

Helen signs off every story on this site. Nothing naming a firm is published without a source that can be linked, and nothing naming an individual is published without a recorded public interest note.

Published work

Investigation · 22 Aug 2026

Thirty days of Warning List entries: what 214 records show about how fraud is sold in Britain now

We read every entry added to the FCA Warning List over the past month and coded each one. Fixed-return language dominates, domains are younger than ever, and one contact pattern appears in nearly a fifth of records.

By Helen Marsden

News · 21 Aug 2026

Regulator fines insurer over inaccurate compensation-scheme reporting

The Prudential Regulation Authority has fined an insurer more than four million pounds over inaccurate reporting of Financial Services Compensation Scheme liabilities. The penalty concerns reporting, not consumer losses.

By Helen Marsden

Explainer · 14 Aug 2026

Reporting fraud: who to tell, in what order, and why the order matters

Your bank comes first because only it can attempt to freeze the receiving account. Action Fraud records the crime for policing purposes.

By Helen Marsden