When dealing with your conveyancing transaction, our obligations are not just to identify who our clients are but also verify the source of their funds as an integral part of our obligations to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and under Anti Money Laundering laws.
Source of funds is about limiting opportunities for funds to be used for criminal activity. Residential conveyancing is classed as high risk of potential anti-money laundering because there are potentially such high sums involved. Therefore source of funds evidence is requested in relation to every relevant conveyancing transaction and we are required to show evidence that this has been requested, reviewed and that we are satisfied.
As part of our requirements under Money Laundering Regulations 2017 we are required to ‘scruntinise transactions’ to ensure that the source of funds is in line with our knowledge of the client, the transaction and the risk profile.
What evidence will I be asked to provide?
Domestic Conveyancing is high risk for anti-money laundering. At an early stage in your transaction you will be asked to provide evidence of the source of funds for your purchase of property. The property may be financed by way of a mortgage in which case we will have those details but where there is a deposit being paid we would need to know for all of that deposit:
1. Where is the money now?
2. Where is the money coming from? This may be from a sale of a property, an inheritance received, savings or company dividends. Whatever the source, we would need to see evidence of this
3. Where money is being gifted to you then we would need information of who is providing the gift and we would also need to ask for their identification and evidence of source of funds.
Use of Technology- Armalytix
At Nicholls Solicitors we have teamed up with Armalytix to assist us in dealing with account verification and source of funds checks. This is a safe, secure and efficient way to deal with our source of funds queries.
Armalytix lets you quickly create financial reports directly from your mobile or desktop. Armalytix allows you to access your bank transactions and balances to create the report your solicitor needs to conduct source of funds checks. This is a legal requirement for professional services firms to help combat financial crime.
Armalytix reports are faster, easier and more secure than dealing with bank statements and only return the information your solicitor needs to progress your transaction. Armalytix uses the government-backed, Open Banking technology to allow you to securely access and share financial information. Armalytix is regulated by the FCA and provides financial report services to professional services firms across the UK.
