Ownership and funding

Ownership

The Fraud Center is a working title for an independent UK publication. The registered entity, its company number, its registered address and the name of every person with a controlling interest are published on this page in full before public launch, and updated within 30 days of any change. No shareholding is held through a nominee or an undisclosed vehicle.

No bank, regulator, insurer, claims company, law firm, marketing agency or lead generator holds any stake in this publication, directly or indirectly. If that ever changes it will be disclosed here first, and on every story where it is material.

How we are funded

The publication is funded by reader contributions and by editorially independent grants. Every grant is listed here with the funder's name, the amount, the period it covers and the purpose it was given for. Reader contributions are aggregated: no individual contributor gets access, influence, or advance sight of anything.

Where a single funder provides more than a quarter of annual income, that fact is stated on this page and the funder is named on any story that touches its interests.

What we refuse

• No affiliate links and no referral fees of any kind, including "free" comparison widgets that pay on click.
• No sponsored placements, advertorial, native advertising or "recommended partner" sections.
• No introductions to law firms, solicitors, claims management companies or representatives.
• No selling, renting or sharing of reader contact details, tips or enquiries as leads.
• No payment for coverage, and no payment to remove, delay or soften coverage.
• No paid-for "right of reply", and no charge for a correction.
• No gifts, hospitality or travel from a firm we cover, above a nominal cup of coffee.
• No search-engine or social placement bought against the name of a firm we are reporting on.

Why we refuse it

A publication that earns money when a reader clicks through to a service has a reason to want that click, and a reader in distress cannot tell the difference between advice and a placement. Refusing the entire category is the only version of this we can honestly stand behind — and it is what keeps us clearly outside the regulated claims management business, which we are not part of and do not intend to enter.

Conflicts of interest

Everyone who writes or edits here declares relevant interests in an internal conflicts register before working on a story: shareholdings, previous employment, family connections, ongoing complaints of their own. Where a conflict is material to a published story we disclose it on the story itself. Where it is material and cannot be managed, the person does not work on that story.

Editorial independence

No funder, contributor or commercial party sees copy before publication or holds any right of approval, comment or veto. Publication decisions rest with the editor, and the technical publication gate in our own systems enforces that: there is no route to publish that bypasses editorial sign-off.

What the money is spent on

Reporting time, editing time, legal review where a story needs it, and the cost of running the databases and the firm checker — which are free to use and always will be. We publish a plain summary of income and expenditure annually.

Grant conditions we will not accept

• Any condition on what we cover, or on which firms are covered.
• Any advance sight of copy, or approval over headlines, framing or timing.
• Any requirement to link to, promote or recommend a product or service.
• Any confidentiality over the existence or amount of the grant itself.

We do not sell data or leads

Tips, contact enquiries and newsletter sign-ups are never sold, rented, shared or used as leads. The privacy notice sets out exactly what is held and for how long, and the firm checker deliberately holds nothing that could identify who searched for what.

How changes are disclosed

Any change to ownership, funding or commercial policy is published here within 30 days, with the date of the change. Historic versions of this page are kept so a reader can see what the position was at the time a story was published. Our full standards are on the editorial policy page.