How we research

The research is public law and official guidance, read source by source. Nothing is smoothed over: a statement we could not confirm is labelled unverified, a text read through a summary or from OCR says so, and a document we could not get is listed with where it is and why.

Checked 2026-09-29

Public law and official guidance, published as research. Not legal, tax or financial advice.

Ask the research

Ask in your own words. The answer is the research itself: its records, word for word, with every source and how sure each one is.

How strong the source is

Every statement carries one level. The count is how many statements in the research hold it.

Primary law
Read in the statute or regulation itself.
2,257
Official guidance
A regulator's own published rule, form, notice or FAQ.
701
Standard
An industry or intergovernmental standard — LBMA, OECD, FATF, ISO.
116
Secondary
A law firm, journalist, NGO or academic describing the law.
384
Industry practice
How the trade actually does it, from market sources.
182
Unverified
Could not be confirmed. The note says why.
126

How much of the source was read

Every source records how much of it was read. The count is how many sources hold each status.

Read in full
The whole text was read.
128
Read in part
The relevant sections were read, not the whole text.
0
Summarised read
Read through a summarising fetch. Section numbers taken from it still need checking against the text.
0
Listed, not read
Found and recorded, but its text was not read.
0
Blocked
The site refused access, or the file could not be read. The note says why.
85
Not recorded
The research did not record how much of this source was read.
1,448

How the text reached us

No original documents were downloaded. Most texts were read online; some were scans, some reached us as transcriptions or OCR. The count is how many sources hold each.

Text
Read from the document's own text.
916
OCR
Read from text recognised in a scanned image. Figures should be checked against the scan.
154
Transcription
Read from a third party's transcription, not the official copy.
17
Supplied to us
A copy supplied to Nelum rather than fetched from the publisher.
0
Scan, no text
A scanned document with no machine-readable text. Nothing was read from it.
0
Not stated
The research does not say how the text was obtained.
574

Researcher's notes

1,469 statements carry a note: why a statement is unverified, where practice departs from the law, or that a section number came from a summarised read rather than the text itself. The note is shown with the statement.

Gaps and departures

276 documents the research needed could not be obtained, each listed on its country or pair page with where it might be and why it was not obtained. 260 findings record where practice departs from the law.

Versions

Each country, pair and route carries the date it was checked and a version. A new version replaces the old one and says which it replaces; nothing is edited in place without a record.