Directorship checks
Confidently hire for senior and board-level roles with Zinc’s directorship checks. Identify conflicts of interests, past disqualifications, and current appointments to help build leadership teams with integrity.
Verify candidate disclosures
Spot undisclosed business interests
Get instant UK results, with global results in 1 to 2 days
What you need to know
Turnaround times
Available in
203 countries and territories
Including
UK
USA
Ireland
Germany
Australia
and more
Identify conflicts of interest quickly and make decisions that keep your business protected.
Avoid conflict of interest
There’s only so much you can cover in an interview. Directorship checks help you understand if a candidate has conflicts of interest that could negatively impact your company growth, especially when the role influences budgets, supplier strategy, data access, or competitive positioning.
Build company-wide trust
Comprehensive checks help you build trust with the rest of your workforce, and assures them that senior leadership has the best interest of the business at heart when they’re making key strategic or operational decisions.
Stay compliant
Directorship checks are required for many senior roles in financial services, private equity, and compliance-heavy sectors. In 2024/25, the Insolvency Service disqualified over 1,000 company directors. Candidate disclosures aren’t enough — only a thorough check can protect your business from fines, legal risk, and adverse outcomes.
See it in action
Book a demo and choose a time to speak with one of our experts about a custom solution for your business.
2
days
Average turnaround time
20
hours
Average global turnaround time
203
Countries and territories supported
Zinc’s automated directorship checks return results in minutes and keep you compliant with regulatory requirements.
Spot risk before it walks through the door
Save time on admin
Stay compliant with regulatory requirements
Integrated with your HR tech stack
SMCR, accelerated.
“A lot of our SMCR checks have been completed quicker. These checks go out to a lot of the more senior people in the business, and it was really nice to get feedback from them that it took less of their time up to get those checks done.”
Spot undisclosed business interests without adding any extra steps to your workflow.
Step one
Once your candidate’s identity verification is complete, we use their name and details to query Companies House and equivalent international registries, without any extra input from the candidate.
Step two
Zinc’s directorship check surfaces all current and past director appointments linked to the candidate, including any disqualification orders. UK results come back instantly. Global directorship checks typically take 1-2 days, depending on the registry.
Step three
Results are returned directly to your Zinc dashboard, alongside all their other screening data for the complete picture. A directorship history isn’t a reason to reject someone — just more information to help your team make the right hiring decisions.
Integrations
Background checks, integrated
Zinc connects directly with your ATS or HRIS at no additional cost. Send checks, get results, and store reports without leaving your preferred platform.
Why businesses love using Zinc
%%An intuitive, easy platform%% with support that's far quicker than other providers. The answers are always reliable, especially when we're dealing with different countries.
%%The candidate experience is excellent.%% Integration was straightforward, the pricing is among the best on the market, and support is quick and consistently helpful.
%%It automates the screening of new employees%% and integrates well with our ATS and HRIS. The initial setup was super easy and we're really happy with the product.
Onboarding takes just a few minutes and %%running checks for international contractors is seamless%%. The pay-per-use model is a huge plus for a small company like ours.
%%It has made my role, and my colleagues' day to day, much easier and more efficient%%, while significantly improving the overall experience for our candidates.
Checks and paperwork sync automatically with our recruitment and HR systems, %%saving us so much time%% not having to check multiple systems. The support teams are always incredibly helpful.
For teams of every size
Flexible background checks
Whether you’re hiring a little or a lot.
Under 20 hires annually
Pay As You Grow
Get started in minutes. Our Pay As You Grow plan is built for lower hiring volumes — a flat rate per check, with no hidden costs or setup fees.
Start checking in minutes, no setup needed
Flat rate per check, no hidden fees
Pay only for what you use
20+ hires annually
Custom solutions
For larger volumes, our experts build a package around your needs. Flexible with your hiring and never expires, with integrations, setup, training, and support all included free.
A custom package built around your hiring
Credit pool that never expires or rolls over
Integrations, setup, and training included free
More from Zinc
Check out more resources, straight from our experts
Start screening in days, not weeks
Combine this check with right to work, references, criminal records and more, across 195 countries, in a single candidate journey.
What does a directorship check show employers?
A directorship check surfaces three things:
- Current appointments (companies where the candidate is currently listed as a director, officer, or significant person of control)
- Past directorships (previous director or officer roles, including at companies that are now dissolved or inactive)
- Disqualification orders (whether the candidate is prohibited from acting as a company director)
UK results come directly from Companies House. International results come from equivalent registries via Zinc's partner iCover.
A directorship history isn't automatically a problem. The point is to give your team the full picture so you can assess whether any appointments create a conflict of interest or compliance concern for the role you're filling.
The Insolvency Service disqualified over 1,000 company directors in the 2024/25 reporting year, with an average ban length of eight years. That's why this check matters for senior and executive hires.
What’s a disqualified director, and how does Zinc identify them in the UK?
A disqualified director is someone legally prohibited from acting as a company director, typically following insolvency proceedings, fraudulent or wrongful trading, persistent Companies House filing failures, or other conduct within the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.
Disqualification orders are recorded by the Insolvency Service and are publicly searchable. Over 1,000 directors are disqualified in the UK annually, with the majority of recent disqualifications related to misuse of government support schemes.
Zinc's directorship check queries Companies House using the candidate's name and identity details from their verified ID. Any active disqualification order surfaces in your dashboard alongside the full directorship history.
Appointing a disqualified director to a position where they'd be acting as a de facto director creates significant legal liability for your organisation.
How long does a directorship check take, whether in the UK or international?
UK directorship checks come back instantly via Companies House. Once identity has been verified, Zinc queries the registry automatically. No extra input needed. Results are in your dashboard within seconds.
International directorship checks typically take one to two days, depending on the country and registry.
Which regulated roles and sectors require directorship checks in the UK?
Directorship checks are most clearly required, or strongly expected, in financial services, where FCA-regulated firms conducting SMCR fitness and propriety assessments need to identify undisclosed business interests or past corporate failures.
For Senior Managers in regulated firms, a directorship check is a standard part of the screening package alongside credit checks, sanctions screening, and regulatory references.
Beyond financial services, directorship checks are relevant for any executive, board-level, or senior leadership hire where an undisclosed directorship could create a conflict of interest. That includes roles with procurement authority, supplier strategy responsibility, competitive intelligence access, or material commercial relationships.
BS7858 vetting also lists directorship checks as relevant for certain security-sensitive roles. Candidates can hold directorships without voluntarily disclosing them, which is why an independent check is more reliable than asking them to self-declare.
Looking for more guidance? Check out our guides to CQC, FCA, and Ofsted checking requirements.
Does a directorship check replace a conflict of interest declaration for regulated roles?
No. They serve different purposes and work best together.
A directorship check independently verifies what companies a candidate is or has been associated with, based on public registry data. It catches undisclosed appointments.
A conflict of interest declaration, sent through Zinc’s self-certification checks, asks the candidate to declare any interests, relationships, or circumstances that could create a conflict, including things that wouldn't appear in a company registry, like close personal relationships with suppliers, clients, or competitors.
For SMCR-regulated roles, both are typically required: the directorship check provides independent verification, and the declaration captures what only the candidate knows. Together they're more defensible than either one alone. Zinc supports both within the same screening package.