TBR Audits
Methodology and independence
A TBR audit asks one question: can a client, a counterparty or an investor rely on this firm? We answer it with evidence: registers checked at source, accounts opened and funded, withdrawals made, documents read. This page sets out exactly how.
The seven pillars
Every audit scores the same seven pillars, from 0 to 100, so grades can be compared across firms. The overall score is the weighted average; the percentages show each pillar's share of a full score.
- 01
Regulation & Licensing 19%
Licences held, matched against regulator registers, and the entity a client actually contracts with.
- 02
Corporate Structure & Ownership 14%
Group structure, beneficial ownership, audited accounts and capital adequacy.
- 03
Client Money & Payouts 19%
Segregation, banking partners, withdrawal and payout times tested with live accounts.
- 04
Execution & Pricing 19%
Spreads, slippage and fill quality measured against the firm’s published figures.
- 05
Conduct & Disclosure 14%
Marketing claims, terms, risk disclosure and complaint handling.
- 06
Operational Resilience 10%
Uptime, security controls, incident history and key-person dependence.
- 07
People & Community 5%
Workplace standards and community contribution, from public evidence: Great Place to Work certification and documented social programmes.
Where a pillar does not apply (client money at a software vendor that never holds it), it is marked not applicable and its weight is spread across the others in proportion.
The grade scale
| Grade | Score | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| AAA | 90 to 100 | Exceptional |
| AA | 80 to 89 | Very strong |
| A | 70 to 79 | Strong |
| BBB | 60 to 69 | Adequate |
| BB | 50 to 59 | Weak in places |
| B | 40 to 49 | Material weaknesses |
| C | 0 to 39 | Serious concerns |
The process
- Scoping. We agree which entities, products and jurisdictions are in scope, and the fee. Nothing about the result is agreed.
- Evidence request. The firm supplies licences, group structure, audited accounts, banking and safeguarding arrangements, policies and complaint data.
- Independent verification. We check every licence on the regulator's own register, search enforcement records, and corroborate ownership from public filings.
- Live testing. We open and fund real accounts, trade, and withdraw, measuring execution, pricing and payout times against the firm's own published figures.
- Draft and right of reply. The firm sees the draft to correct factual errors only. It may publish a response alongside the report.
- Publication. The report, grade and badge are published in the registry, valid for 12 months.
Independence
A firm can commission and pay for its own audit. That is a conflict, and these rules exist to manage it in the open. Desk audits, carried out on our own initiative from public sources, are not paid for by anyone.
- A fixed fee, paid before fieldwork. The fee never depends on the grade, and is not refunded for a low one.
- Every commissioned audit says so, in a disclosure above the findings.
- The firm cannot edit findings or the grade. It can correct facts and publish a reply.
- Once fieldwork starts, the result is published, whatever the grade.
- No affiliate commissions, from anyone. TBR takes no referral or affiliate income from any firm, audited or not.
- Reviews are separate. Review scores and audit grades are set against separate published methods, and neither an audit fee nor a grade ever changes a review.
- Partners get no special treatment. Firms with a commercial partnership with TBR are labelled Preferred on their profile, audit report and review and wherever we list or feature them, and are audited under the same rules. They are listed first in tables and lists, but a partnership never changes a grade, a score or a finding.
- Grades can be withdrawn. A material regulatory action, a failed payout or a misleading use of the badge withdraws a grade immediately, with the reason published.
Desk audits
A desk audit uses public sources only: regulator registers, enforcement records, court and stock-exchange filings, and the firm's own published documents. No accounts are opened and nothing is tested live, so Execution & Pricing and Operational Resilience are not assessed and do not count towards the grade. People & Community is assessed from public sources in every audit. Desk audits are labelled on the report, the seal and the badge. A firm may upgrade to a full audit at any time.
The pillars assessed in a desk audit are scored against these published bands, from the evidence listed in each report:
| Pillar | Band | What puts a firm there |
|---|---|---|
| Regulation & Licensing | 85 to 100 | All client-facing entities hold tier-one or tier-two licences; registers match the firm's disclosures; no offshore entity for retail clients. |
| 70 to 84 | Strong core licences, but the group also onboards retail clients through an offshore entity. | |
| below 70 | A large share of the business runs through offshore entities, or register checks show discrepancies. | |
| Corporate Structure & Ownership | 85 to 100 | Listed company with audited accounts and regulatory filings in the public domain. |
| 65 to 84 | Privately held; ownership disclosed; regulated entities identifiable on registers. | |
| below 65 | Ownership or group structure not disclosed. | |
| Client Money & Payouts | 80 to 95 | Retail clients contract with entities in a compensation scheme, with negative balance protection and segregated client money. |
| 65 to 79 | Protections apply in the core entities, but an offshore entity offers no compensation scheme. | |
| below 65 | Public record of payout failures or client money breaches. | |
| People & Community | Workplace, up to 50 | 40 for Great Place to Work certification within the last 24 months; 10 more for a place on a national or European Best Workplaces list. |
| Community, up to 50 | 50 for a sustained, multi-year programme reported by independent media; 30 for a programme reported by the firm with named initiatives, or in its audited accounts; 15 for a single contribution linked to a sponsorship; 0 where none is found. | |
| Conduct & Disclosure | 85 to 95 | No public enforcement action in the last eight years. |
| 65 to 84 | Older or minor enforcement. | |
| below 65 | Recent material enforcement, or regulator proceedings still open. |
Enforcement actions more than eight years old are recorded in the findings but do not affect any score. Trading incentives offered by an offshore entity, where they are lawful in that jurisdiction, are recorded in the findings but do not reduce the score. Within a band, the score reflects the number and severity of findings. Absence of a public record is not proof of good conduct, and each report says so in its limitations.
Limits of an audit
An audit is a point-in-time assessment of the evidence available to us. It is not a guarantee of a firm's solvency or conduct, not a regulatory approval, and not investment advice. Each report states its own scope and limitations.