This International Women’s Day, we’re excited to announce our partnership with Ladies of Law, a fantastic organisation empowering and supporting women in the legal field.

This initiative builds on OneSearch’s commitment to diversity and inclusion. By working together, OneSearch and Ladies of Law hope to empower women in the industry, celebrate the achievements of women lawyers, conveyancers, and legal professionals across the UK, and foster a more equitable legal landscape for all.

“We are thrilled to connect with Ladies of Law as a supporting partner,” stated Elizabeth Jarvis, Managing Director at OneSearch. “Their mission to champion women in the legal industry aligns perfectly with our own values of ensuring there is an empowering and inclusive working environment. We believe that by supporting initiatives like Ladies of Law, we can contribute to a more vibrant and successful legal profession for all.”

As part of the partnership, both organisations will offer collaborative support and guidance with events, networking, marketing, and social media. OneSearch sponsored the most recent Ladies of Law networking evening, which was a hugely successful, sold-out event in Bristol on the February 8th. The group will be hosting their next networking event in Exeter on the April 25th.

The agreement also provides for OneSearch to be a priority partner in future Ladies of Law networking events, projects, and initiatives.

“We are incredibly grateful for OneSearch’s commitment to supporting our mission,” said Ella Watts, Founder of Ladies of Law. “Partnerships such as this help us empower women across the legal field and provide them with the resources and opportunities they need to thrive. We look forward to a successful collaboration that will make a real difference in the lives of women in conveyancing.”

About Ladies of Law

Ladies of Law is a dynamic organisation dedicated to empowering, supporting, and connecting women in the legal field at every stage of their careers. Through impactful programs, events, and initiatives, Ladies of Law fosters a supportive community and advocates for greater diversity and inclusion within the legal profession.

To learn more about Ladies of Law, visit: ladiesoflaw.com

Introducing the Landmark Climate Change Report: Helping property professionals, property investors and businesses to understand how climate change could impact a property.

It is highly important to start reporting on climate change and the numbers can prove it:

  • 2022 was officially the warmest year on record for the UK (Source: BBC)
  • Large-scale action in all sectors of the economy will be required, including tackling emissions generated by the building stock, which accounts for 31% of our national emissions. (Souce: Gov.uk) 
  • 25 percent of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the built environment. (Source: parliament.uk) 

The Landmark Climate Change Report is a desktop report, designed to enable property professionals to understand how climate change could impact a given residential or commercial property. Unlike other reports in the market, it benefits from understanding the concerns of both: 

  • Physical risks [flooding, subsidence, heat stress, coastal erosion]
  • Transition risks [energy performance]

The report is property specific, based on a UPRN, and doesn’t stop with providing just data; delivered in an intuitive format Landmark Climate Change Report gives property professionals the ability to inform clients with advice and recommendations relating to climate change.

Who is this report for?

The Landmark Climate Change Report is for real estate lawyers and residential conveyancers¿ who want to provide best practice due diligence and inform their clients on future climate change risks

The report gives the ability to inform on short, medium and long-term physical and transitional climate-related risks for a specific property with advice and recommendations if appropriate, delivered in an intuitive format unlike current reports in the market which provide unsupported data and little explanation in every environmental report, regardless of requirements.

Further reading

Landmark asked leading experts in their property-related fields to contribute to a white paper, which sets out the physical and transitional risks that the industry faces – and proposes workable solutions to the challenge of reporting on and responding to the risks. 

Read the executive summary of the Landmark Climate Change white paper here

Additionally, you can also check out a series of Landmark blog posts here:

Join us on the 31st January at 2PM for a free webinar with our partners LMS to demo their confirmly platform, showcasing some of its key features.

Robin Wells, Head of Sales Operations at OneSearch, and Travis Scholes, Commercial Director at LMS will co-host this session, detailing the confirmly platform, its key features, and how your firm will benefit from this technology.

The webinar will run for around 30 minutes, with time at the end for any questions on confirmly, and how to get started. We will also be announcing an exciting incentive for OneSearch customers during this webinar. 

Register for the webinar here

If you haven’t yet had the chance to try confirmly, here are some of the reasons why others are switching:

  • Law firm submitted data

Information is constantly updated and checked through 1000’s of direct interactions each year.

  • Simple to search

Powerful search functionality that delivers information fast.

  • Indemnified service

A trusted way to reduce transactional risks.

  • Easy access

Seamless integration with OneSearch

  • Reduce manual intervention without reducing risk

The latest technology keeps money transfers secure through the continual use of eCOT and checked bank account data.

For any questions on confirmly from LMS in the meantime, please contact intro@onesearchdirect.co.uk

We are pleased to announce our new partnership with leading panel management specialist LMS to offer their identity checking solution, confirmly, to all our clients.

confirmly was launched by LMS in February of this year, and is designed to reduce risk by safeguarding transfers of conveyancing funds and client monies from fraudsters and attempted scams.’ The technology provides real time monitoring to law firms by harnessing LMS Panel Link and specialist data to verify transaction details quickly.

The partnership is established with cybercrime an ever-present risk within a post-pandemic conveyancing landscape, with funds and sensitive client information being a constant target for cybercriminals. Last October, one potential sale collapsed due to the buyer being scammed into handing over £640,000 to criminals using a fraudulent email account resembling that of the solicitors.

 

 

Robin Wells, Head of Sales Operations at OneSearch, said:

“The new partnership with LMS and confirmly is critically important to OneSearch. It fully satisfies our need to offer greater client protection at a time when cybercrime is becoming ever more sophisticated. LMS have been a trusted business in the industry for many years, and their robust systems enable us to offer increased due diligence and peace of mind for clients.”

 

Travis Scholes, Commercial Director at LMS added:

“We are thrilled to be offering confirmly with OneSearch. Collaboration and accessibility are huge parts of our strategy and law firms being able to access confirmly through OneSearch means that our customer experience is becoming even more streamlined, allowing them to focus on efficiencies in other areas of the process. We really do believe in the data that sits behind confirmly, so much so that all matched results are indemnified, providing that extra level of certainty for law firms.”

 

To find out more about confirmly via OneSearch, you can view their product card and sample report here. If you would like to learn how confirmly would fit into your workflow with us, please call the OneSearch Service Introduction Team on 01782 433 270 or email intro@onesearchdirect.co.uk.

We are pleased to announce our partnership with Armalytix, the open banking platform which streamlines the collection of data for the professional and financial service industries.

Armalytix’s Source of Funds technology will now be available to OneSearch clients, helping to support them by providing best in class solutions that enhance their business. Through the partnership with Armalytix, OneSearch clients can have access to Armalytix’s Source of Funds analysis, questionnaires and reports which provide a simple, visual way for lawyers to gather the correct source of funds information from their clients to manage compliance and money laundering risks.  

The relationship comes at an important time with both the SRA & CLC stating at the recent Legal Eye Risk & Compliance conference in Birmingham that the regulatory focus on AML is not going away anytime soon. The partnership will support conveyancers moving to electronic digital methods, rather than using paper and manual processes, helping to mitigate the reputational and financial risk that companies are currently placing themselves under, as shown by the SRA’s recent fine of a firm for wrongly saying it had a proper AML risk assessment.

Robin Wells, Head of Sales Operations, OneSearch, comments:

“Working with Armalytix represents another positive step in with which OneSearch Is assisting conveyancers with due diligence in a more dynamic and efficient way. The decision for us to partner with Armalytix was an easy one, we feel it’s the most comprehensive and most effective solution in the market”

Tom Lyes, Head of Legal and Property at Armalytix, stated:

“Our vision to create a form free future fits in perfectly with OneSearch’s mission to offer a complete solution to the property transaction.  Our Source of Funds tool ensures that clients can meet AML and fraud checks for compliance and regulatory purposes, and digitises the process, allowing for a better client experience.  We’re excited to be supporting OneSearch as one of the most trusted brands in the conveyancing world.”

To launch the new partnership, OneSearch and Armalytix are delighted to invite you to an upcoming webinar.

‘Tackling Source of Funds with Armalytix & OneSearch’ will take place on the 27th July. You can sign up for this webinar for free by clicking here, or find out more information here.

If you can’t make this date, but would like a recording afterwards, email us here.

To find out more about Armalytix via OneSearch, download their product card, sample report, alternatively please call the OneSearch Service Introduction Team on 01782 433 270 or email intro@onesearchdirect.co.uk.

AML risks a top priority for the SRA into 2022 and conveyancers need to remain vigilant

We’ve seen caseload volumes return to more normal levels since the SDLT holiday ended. In a way, the industry is returning to some kind of normalcy. So, it’s a good time to ask:

Are AML criminals returning to “normal” as well?

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted in its 2020/21 report published in September:

“For some, the pandemic meant diverting resources away from AML supervisory activity, which inevitably affected the number of assessments they conducted.”

Now is a good time to refocus on AML and check your policies, procedures and training schedule is in order.

 

Conveyancers need to stay one step ahead of AML criminals

The UK is seen as a high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering. Conveyancing has been designated high risk because of the amounts of money that are moved.

To help tackle complacency, HMRC published a name-and-shame list of businesses that have not complied with the regulations, which includes a number of law firms and estate agencies.

The SRA is also adopting a tough stance with individuals banned from holding compliance roles, and firms issued with heavy fines.

In the 2020/21 AML Annual Report, the SRA stated the main cause of breaches were:

  • Inadequate policies, controls and procedures
  • Lack of supervision or training
  • Staff not following set procedures

In addition, 273 reports of potential AML breaches were made, which most commonly involved no AML risk assessment.

Or failure to carry out:

  • Source of funds check
  • Customer due diligence
  • Identity checks

Although complying with AML regulations can appear daunting, there are solutions available to help conveyancers of every size and budget.

 

The SRA highlighted major red flags all conveyancers should be monitoring

The SRA’s report states:

“The two areas where we continue to see the most risks relating to money laundering are conveyancing, including vendor fraud (where fraudsters try and sell a property without the consent or knowledge of the owner) and dubious investment schemes.”

The subsequent press release highlighted house sale fraud as one avenue criminals continue to pursue.

The SRA stresses the importance of conveyancer vigilance and lists the following red flags:

  • the property price is significantly over or under the market value
  • the seller or buyer is reluctant or unable to provide documents
  • ID documents do not look genuine
  • there is pressure to complete the transaction very quickly
  • minimal work is instructed, for example, no searches are requested
  • there are complex or unusual circumstances around the transaction
  • it is a cash purchase of a property
  • funds are coming from or going to unconnected third parties

Conducting these checks manually is time-consuming and prone to error. Ensuring the data you work from are up to date is a huge challenge for a busy conveyancer.

 

Electronic verification is helping conveyancers to stay compliant – efficiently

The SRA says, “electronic verification tools can help firms carry out these tasks, but it is important that firms use them appropriately.”

The Legal Sector Affinity Group (LSAG) agrees, acknowledging “In an increasingly digital age, it is clear that non-face-to-face customer onboarding can no longer be viewed as always high risk (although it remains a key risk factor to be assessed in the context of the wider relationship) – a more nuanced approach should therefore be adopted to these types of relationships.”

The LSAG goes on to say the use of electronic identification and verification (EID&V) tools may be helpful in that they:

  • can improve efficiency in customer identification and verification at on-boarding
  • allow the undertaking of checks that may be resource-intensive to be done more efficiently
  • can be applied consistently from client to client
  • can support ongoing due diligence and scrutiny of transactions

 

OneSearch’s AML offerings can help keep you compliant

We offer a number of Customer Due Diligence (CDD) checks to support your Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.

GBG AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Check

This comprehensive report includes:

  • UK Deceased Persons Database
  • UK NCOA (Alert Flag) Database check
  • International Sanctions (Enhanced) check
  • International PEP (Enhanced)

GBG AML with Document Check

This is a powerful combination of the GBG AML Check with a document check to ensure all your bases are covered when verifying the identity of your clients.

SmartSearch AML (Landmark)

  • This report on individuals returns seven proofs of identity from six independent sources, including Experian
  • Equifax
  • Dow Jones
  • Companies House

In addition, the Dual CRA Bureau connectivity enables the highest ‘match & pass’ rate in the market.

You can simply add what you need to your order on a case-by-case basis.

Or, to ensure consistency across all cases and branches, set up your existing search bundles with the addition of an AML check.

1 in 4 of the top 500 law firms use the service we recommend and have made available on our ordering platform. To find out more about adding Anti-Money Laundering products to your bundles, call our Service Introduction Team on 01782 433 270 or email intro@onesearchdirect.co.uk.