UK business registration – a system built for abuse

[Christina Brause]

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Every two minutes, a new company is launched in the United Kingdom(UK). With online registration taking less than 24 hours, the British system has become a poster child for ease of doing business. This relentless pace has created an exceptionally high business density – there is now one registered company for every six inhabitants in the United Kingdom. It has also created a crisis: a system so open it is fuelling an industry of fraud and financial crime. The result is a company data landscape that is not only vast, but increasingly difficult to navigate and trust.