AML Solution for Conveyancing

What are the challenges?

For conveyancers, the risk of money laundering and ID fraud is inherently higher than in other areas of law, which is shown in how the professional indemnity premiums for conveyancing firms are much higher than those who do not work with property transactions.

Preventing fraud in the legal sector

Reducing risk is a key challenge for the legal sectors especially as traditionally it has been slower to adopt technology to help prevent fraud. This leads to a stagnant, manual approach to the conveyancing process which poses further problems for law firms, estate agents, and buyers and sellers.

Why are money laundering checks required?

Money laundering costs the UK around 100 billion annually, so property buyers must be checked for money laundering to ensure the funds used for the transaction are legitimate. Solicitors and property professionals must fight this phenomenon by completing enhanced due diligence on their clients and carrying out AML checks. Most solicitors are unaware of the digital AML solutions that can help swiftly carry out these checks and rely on paper documents, clients honesty and in some cases ‘pure luck’.

Identity Verification Checks

ID checks are a vital part of understanding who you are dealing with, as it is a significant opportunity for criminals to trick solicitors with fake identity. Identity documents accepted as ID by solicitors and conveyancers usually includes one or more of the following: UK/EU photo driving license, Passport and Residence permits. The use of a digital and biometric based identity check is highly recommended for conveyancers and property solicitors for its accuracy, ease of use and wide range of documents that can be checked.

Address Verification Checks

Address Verification requires the solicitor to link the client to an address, this can include a bank statement, utility bill, mortgage statement, council tax bill or a tenancy agreement from your local authority. Whilst this can be easily provided by many clients, checking the authenticity of the document is difficult without a software solution like Verify 365. Using a electronic system that checks local and national data sources means proof of address documents can be supported with a electronic check that confirms the client is linked with the address.

Source of Funds

For every property purchase, solicitors must check the source of funds that are being used by the client. Money laundering is not only prevalent in cash purchases, structuring money laundering through a mortgage or gift purchase is common so solicitors should always check source of funds at the beginning of the conveyancing process. If the funds are coming from outside of the UK or EEA then extra diligence is required. Open Banking and digital bank statements with Verify 365 quickly helps identify source of funds and in combination with our questionnaire it becomes a powerful tool for conveyancers.

PEPS/Sanctions checking

Checking your client for PEPs and Sanctions means you know who you are dealing with and any risks that you face can be mitigated. It is a requirement by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to check each client for sanctions but this is often overlooked by solicitors who do not know how to complete PEPs and Sanctions checks. You can check all major lists with Verify 365 sanction screening checking solution.

That’s why we’ve made Verify 365 the perfect solution for conveyancing and client onboarding. As the first legal technology company in the world to meet the Safe Harbour Digital ID standard set out by the HM Land Registry, our solution now has helped over many conveyancing law firms streamline processes by completing everything from ID verification, AML checks, Payments, Searches, and Legal Forms in one platform.

Verify 365 can help speed up the entire process while also ensuring compliance with the Digital ID Standard.

Using our client onboarding law firms can save over 80% of the time when compared to manual processes.