In the ever-evolving world of Anti-Money Laundering (AML), ongoing monitoring plays a crucial role in mitigating risks and ensuring compliance. This is especially true in the realm of conveyancing, where large sums of money are changing hands.

This coffee-break article aims to shed light on ongoing monitoring in AML for conveyancing within England and Wales.

What is ongoing monitoring in AML for conveyancing?

Ongoing monitoring is the continuous process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating money laundering risks throughout the conveyancing transaction. It involves regular reviews of customer due diligence, monitoring transactions for suspicious activity, and reporting any concerns to the authorities.

How often should ongoing monitoring be done?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how often or how long you need to monitor your customers’ activity. Instead, regulations require ‘ongoing monitoring’ that adapts to each business relationship. This means regularly checking conveyancing transactions (and sometimes, where necessary, the source of funds) to see if they match your understanding of the customer, their business, and their risk level. Basically, the higher the risk, the deeper your ongoing monitoring should be.

We empower you to customize your monitoring for each customer, allowing you to focus on those who pose the highest risk.

When should ongoing monitoring take place?

Ongoing monitoring for AML in UK conveyancing should ideally happen throughout the entire client relationship, not just at the beginning.

Here are some key points to consider:

  • Continual Basis: The Law Society recommends a system of file reviews or reminders to ensure ongoing monitoring is applied
  • High-Risk Clients: All clients should be monitored, but those identified as high-risk require enhanced due diligence and more frequent monitoring
  • Trigger Events: Specific situations can trigger the need for additional CDD checks, which essentially act as a form of ongoing monitoring. (Change of name, inconsistent transactions, reluctance to meet in person)

Why is ongoing monitoring important in conveyancing?

Conveyancing deals are particularly susceptible to money laundering due to the high transaction values and the involvement of various parties. Ongoing monitoring helps to:

  • Identify suspicious activity: By regularly reviewing transactions and customer information, red flags like large cash payments, unusual source of funds, or inconsistencies can be identified and investigated
  • Mitigate risks: Early detection of suspicious activity allows for taking timely action, such as seeking clarification from the customer, refusing the transaction, or reporting to the authorities
  • Demonstrating compliance: Robust ongoing monitoring demonstrates to regulators that firms are taking AML obligations seriously and have measures in place to combat financial crime

How can I implement ongoing monitoring in my conveyancing practice?

Here are some steps you can take:

  • Develop a risk assessment: Identify the ML risks specific to your practice and tailor your monitoring procedures accordingly
  • Train your staff: Ensure your staff is aware of their AML obligations and how to identify and report suspicious activity
  • Use technology: Consider using technology solutions to automate some aspects of monitoring, such as transaction monitoring and sanctions screening
  • Seek professional advice: Consult with an AML expert for guidance on implementing effective monitoring procedures

What are some resources available to help me with ongoing monitoring / AML?

Remote ID Verification is a method of confirming the identities of individuals such as clients or customers who are not physically present. Whereas antiquated methods of confirming identity required persons to be in the room as well as providing documents, the advancements of technology have meant authentication processes can now be carried out anywhere in the world.

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at a faster, more accurate and more secure form of identity verification, and break down what each component is, and how they all add up to make the AML biometric verification process so much easier.

It starts with liveness detection…

What is liveness detection?

In remote identity verification the use of liveness detection is critical in preventing presentation attacks or “spoofs”. Essentially, it is to make sure the individual carrying out the test is a) real, and b) who they say they are.

Common spoofs include:

  • Masks
  • Photographs or digital prints
  • Digital screens
  • Video playbacks

There are two forms of liveness detection; Active and Passive.

  1. Active Liveness, where a user is instructed to perform an action, such as blink, move your head from side to side, or smile.
  2. Passive liveness works unnoticed in the background without requiring any additional steps from the user. It includes use of AI technology and deep neural networks to detect spoofs.

As passive liveness requires no response from the user, it is often the case that they occur without the user being aware a liveness check is taking place, let alone what security mechanism is being used. This reduces the risk of fraudulent access and identity theft.

What other examples are there in life of passive lifeless tests?

You may start noticing passive liveness tests in more and more in everyday activities, from airport security to mortgage applications.

  • Facial recognition systems: Banks, airports, border control, and other security-sensitive applications
  • Remote document verification: Online onboarding for financial services, healthcare, and other sectors
  • Mobile authentication: Secure access to mobile apps and accounts

Passive liveness is a rapidly evolving technology with the potential to significantly enhance security and convenience in various applications.

Methods:

  • Document verification: Uploading scans or photos of government-issued IDs and comparing them to official databases
  • Facial recognition: Using a webcam or smartphone camera to capture a live image of the person and comparing it to the photo on their ID
  • Knowledge-based authentication: Asking the person security questions based on information they are likely to know
  • Third-party data verification: Checking the person’s information against public or private databases, with their consent

As the risk surrounding identity fraud and money laundering evolves, so too does the technology used to fight it. The introduction of a new industry benchmark from HM Land Registry has pulled ID verification into the 21st century.

This quick five-minute read will get you up to speed with this new Anti-Money Laundering touchstone, and the technology which has made it possible, detailing why its adoption can be of huge benefit for law firms and conveyancers dealing with AML.

What is the HM Land Registry Digital ID Standard?

In March 2021, HM Land Registry presented new guidance for a higher standard of identity verification within the industry.

This new benchmark encouraged the use of both biometric and cryptographic technology checks, which would offer a greater level of fraud prevention, as well as enhancing efficiency and convenience during client onboarding.

Upon conducting these checks, the conveyancer would have reached ‘Safe Harbour’ status for that case.

Why was it brought in?

“The current processes in conveyancing do not feel very 21st century and they have proved difficult to maintain in the current crisis. What can we do about it?”

Mike Harlow, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Customer and Strategy

A Land Registry blog post from May 2020 raised concerns around fraud prevention and identity checking practices within the industry.

The article spoke of the “inconvenience and inconsistency” of outdated, manual verification methods which relied on the variable factor of human ability, compared to the more modern electronic passport checking methods.

Fuelled in part by the COVID pandemic, embracing these modern methods would not only greatly reduce the need for face-to-face meetings, but allow the conveyancer to complete checks in a more efficient, convenient way.

What is Safe Harbour?

If solicitors and conveyancers adopt and adhere to these new guidelines, either for residential or commercial transactions, HMLR will consider them to have “taken reasonable steps” to verify customer identities, and they would have reached Safe Harbour.

This means that HMLR would not seek recourse against the conveyancer should the identity of their client confirmed later in the process to be inaccurate.

How do you reach Safe Harbour status?

The three stages are:

  1. Obtaining evidence from the client
  2. Checking the validity of the evidence
  3. Matching the identity to the evidence

A fourth requirement is an additional check to be carried out by the conveyancer who represents a transferor, borrower, or lessor in the transaction.

What are the benefits to law firms?

Embracing this new yardstick of verification can provide an efficient, cost effective, and reliable approach to legally verifying if a person is genuine when buying or selling properties. Advances in technology such as NFC in smartphones speed up the process, whilst AI authenticity checks can spot fake documents with fast and reliable ease. With these advances bringing peace of mind to a once problematic area of conveyancing, it’s understandable why these guidelines are being adopted in many law practices.