Sponsored content policy

Short answer Paid articles and press releases are always labelled, make up no more than 10% of what we publish, and never appear in our reference tables or licence tracker.

Labels

A Sponsored label appears above the headline of every paid article.
A Press release label appears above every press release a company supplies or pays for.
Every link that leaves ptvold from a paid item is marked rel="sponsored".

We do not remove labels on request.

Who can buy a placement

We accept paid content only from organisations licensed or registered for what they promote:

banks, microfinance banks and electronic money institutions licensed by the State Bank of Pakistan;
crypto platforms holding a PVARA no-objection certificate (NOC) or licence;
entities regulated by the SECP, for what they are licensed for;
remittance companies licensed in the sending country with an SBP-authorised channel in Pakistan.

Before we draft, we check the organisation on the regulator’s own register and keep a record of that check.

What we always refuse

loans and lending apps;
gambling and betting;
unlicensed exchanges, brokers or signal groups;
investment schemes and guaranteed returns;
“earning apps”;
anything that helps fake documents or payment receipts.

Editorial standards still apply

Facts in paid items are checked like any other story. The company’s claims are attributed to the company (“the company says”), not presented as our findings. Crypto items carry our risk warning and never promise returns.

Separation from reference data

Paid content never changes our SWIFT and IBAN pages, fee tables, wallet codes or the PVARA licence tracker. Those are not for sale.

For formats and requirements, see advertise.