SMQ Legal LLP is an Oxfordshire-based law firm that offers a wide range of legal services to clients. As with most law firms, they would like to increase their client base and be able to serve clients further than their physical location. To help with this, SMQ Legal LLP needed a digital client onboarding solution that could streamline their onboarding processes but also strengthen compliance and AML efforts.
“The amazing thing about Verify 365 is that now we confidently take clients who live further than our surrounding office locations, we now even take on international clients!”
“It’s incredibly easy to use and takes on average a few minutes to get the ID verification complete.”
The growing law firm also recently set up a Conveyancing Department and understood the risks involved with high-value transactions. With many staff working hybrid in-person checks was an unnecessary risk for all.
By using Verify 365, SMQ Legal cut client onboarding times, took on more clients, and increased their revenue while staying compliant.
Validation is not the same as verification
Before using Verify 365, SMQ Legal would either collect documents from their clients manually which involved clients’ visits to the firms’ offices, or documents were sent in by email or post, adding significant time to the onboarding process. The team would then use a legacy system to check the validity of the documents to ensure they were genuine ID documents. This meant that whilst they were checking the validity of an ID document there was no process to actually match that document alongside the clients face.
Quick, secure and qualified ID checks with Verify 365
“Using Verify 365 for our client onboarding has been phenomenal, we are now onboarding clients quicker than ever before. The best thing is that we can now confidently take on clients from anywhere in the world! We simply send them a link from the portal and wait for the report to be generated, whereas previously there was always an element of risk and uncertainty.”
Since using Verify 365, SMQ Legal LLP has cut the time needed to onboard new and existing clients from an average time of 1 week to 4 hours.
Compliance is no longer a constant worry for our team
“This challenge still exists because we know tactics for money laundering and other financial crimes committed by criminals constantly evolve and are more advanced now than ever before. But Verify 365 removes the issue of having to make an uninformed decision. We let the technology give us the insight that isn’t possible just by looking at a document. So it reduces the risk of losing a client, and possible revenue because if they are verified using Verify 365 we are confident that is possible to work with them.
The firm can now take on new clients, onboarding them quickly, securely, and, compliantly.
“One of the key reinforcing factors for us was that it met the ‘digital ID standard set out by the HM Land Registry called ‘Safe Harbour’, this spoke volumes about the level of due diligence that was been carried out.”
Get in touch, if you think your law firm client onboarding could be faster, more secure, and help win new clients.