Introduction Can an expired passport be used as an ID? The short answer is no; an expired passport or photo ID is officially an invalid form of identification and cannot be used to verify identity when setting up a bank account, taking out a loan, buying a house or getting legal advice, for example. It […]
Introduction Anti-money laundering (AML) regulations mean regulated businesses such as estate agents, law firms, and financial institutions, or any business within the financial sector must perform AML checks on new clients. AML checks for estate agents are essential as real estate transactions are a widespread form of money laundering; this puts something called black funds […]
Introduction You would have had to prove your identity if you had previously used the services of a regulated business, such as a solicitor, real estate agent or any legal service or practice. This would have been done in the form of you supplying a photo ID like a passport or a driving licence. But what […]
Buying a first or new property can be an exciting but very stressful time for first-time buyers and homeowners, especially when doing through anti-money laundering checks when buying a house. One of these stresses is the continuous back and forth with estate agents, solicitors and financial institutes, supplying documents and identification such as driver's licence […]
Introduction Fraudulent and counterfeit documents such as fake Passports and Drivers License can pose a significant risk to the UK and businesses. With an increase of 70% of identified fake passport documents at borders, this still poses a massive problem and begs the question of how to check if a passport is fake. With creating […]
Introduction With money laundering becoming a growing threat and criminals becoming more creative with ways to elude detection, how can businesses combat this and have a strong defence against money laundering? You would assume that screening every client and monitoring them long-term would be a time-consuming and complicated task. Well, for those who do it […]
Law firm client onboarding and the key steps to success is an essential topic to discuss. All law firms must adhere to strict guidelines regarding client onboarding. Many factors include hefty sanctions for any money laundering that isn't flagged and the need to ensure firms know precisely who their clients are. This article looks at […]
Introduction Whenever a client wants to buy property, get legal advice or apply for credit or a loan, anti-money-laundering checks must be carried out. As methods of determining anti-money laundering are becoming more sophisticated, so are attempts to avoid detection, which means that the amount of time these checks take to complete varies from person […]
Introduction Instances of identity theft are on the rise around the globe due to such a high volume of the population using different forms of identification, using digital systems, and attackers becoming more intelligent in their attacks. And an area of identity theft is aggravated identity theft - an area which is often the scariest […]
What is anti-money laundering? (AML) Before we touch on what anti-money laundering is and AML checks for solicitors, it's important to understand the reasons for anti-money laundering (AML). In a nutshell, AML is the process of tackling money laundering through detection, prevention, and punishment. So what is money laundering? Money laundering can be characterised in […]
