Archive

Regulated firms, particularly estate agents, who take on new business clients are leaving themselves exposed to serious red flags by not...

OneDome is offering free digital know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks for estate agents using its various home buying services.  The...

Estate agents are among falling numbers of regulated firms that aren’t checking sanctions and politically exposed persons (PEP) lists, research suggests. A...

Leading digital compliance firm SmartSearch has launched an innovative new solution to help professionals working within the UK property sector to...

Agents are being warned that they risk financial and reputational costs by continuing to rely on manual methods of identity verification. It...

SmartSearch, the UK’s leading provider of digital compliance, has published an agenda-setting whitepaper to highlight the anti-money laundering shortcomings and sanctions...

AML experts SmartSearch warn estate agents that, with so many firms still hiding behind ‘opaque corporate structures,’ proper due diligence has...

Sanctions against Russian oligarchs are working but agents and property professionals are being warned against getting complacent when checking international buyer...

It has been another busy month for job moves in the estate agency sector. Here are some of the latest moves that...

Northern Ireland has been named as a potential hotspot for money laundering. New data from anti-money laundering software provider SmartSearch has identified...

Dozens of estate agents have been fined a combined total of £519,645 for failing to meet their obligations under anti-money laundering...

The Government’s mini budget on September 23 was anything but ‘mini’ with several major announcements one of the most significant of...

If recent headlines are anything to go by, estate agents and the wider property industry are not just feeling the heavy...

Agents are ‘wrongly’ relying on hard copies of identity documents to verify people’s identities in anti-money laundering (AML) checks, new research...

Property firms are still failing to make basic anti-money laundering checks (AML), and some may even unwittingly be helping politically exposed...

Anti-money laundering (AML) software provider SmartSearch is warning of a rise in financial crime, particularly targeting smaller property firms. A survey of...

Up to 70% of property firms have not changed their approach to onboarding new customers since sanctions were imposed on Russia...

Anti-money laundering specialist SmartSearch has reached 1,000 clients in the property industry. It comes amid increased scrutiny of money laundering amid sanctions...

House price growth may be slowing but there is still plenty of movement in the property jobs market. Here are some of...

The outcome of the Ukraine crisis is far from certain, but one thing has become abundantly clear. The long-overdue Economic Crime...

If the UK and its allies have been played by Russia over the Ukraine ‘invasion’, and it’s beginning to look that...

The UK property industry has long been a target of fraudsters due to the low levels of transparency and the fact...

While running customer identification and verification checks is part and parcel of the onboarding process for estate agents, under UK anti...

Brexit means that the UK’s anti-money laundering laws are no longer governed by the European Union (EU), but any estate agents...

The property market, and therefore, estate agents have been accused of being the 'weak link' in the UK’s money laundering defences. This...

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has been criticised for its lack of enforcement of anti-money laundering (AML) legislation so far in...

Does your company apply adequate customer due diligence measures when carrying out estate agency work?  Does it establish and maintain appropriate policies...

A PropTech company boss says evidence given to MPs confirms the need to improve anti-money laundering processes through greater automation and...