Government backs property industry AML digital identity project

Etive Technologies is seeking to eliminate the need for multiple-entry identity checking in property sales transactions has secured a government grant to fund its AML project.  Etive’s project will enable home movers to use a single digital identity key when buying or selling a property.

This will be used by all the parties in the process including estate agents, conveyancers, mortgage intermediaries and mortgage lenders. This, the government hopes, will help remove many of the barriers to AML compliance in the property market. Some agents shy away from asking probing identity questions of potential clients fearing it may put them off buying or instructing a property.

GOVERNMENT CASH

The government funding comes via an Innovate Grant, an organisation that offers between £25,000 and £2 million to projects depending on a their scope.

The project, supported by the Law Society, CLC, SRA, CILEx Regulation, NAEAPropertymark, Guild of Property Professionals, RICS, RPSA and National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team, is to create a centrally agreed framework, aligned to DCMS policy objectives and HMLR guidelines, against which all processes and providers would be accredited, to provide greater surety of data quality and reliance.

“Technology is transforming the way we live, work and access services, and our work in government to boost the use of digital identity will enable smoother, cheaper and more secure online transactions when buying or selling a home,” says Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman (main picture).

“I look forward to seeing this project help not only house hunters but also those in the legal, business and public sectors.”

“Developing a trust framework for digital identity in conveyancing holds out the promise of faster and more secure transactions and is good for clients, conveyancers and the property market as a whole.”

Iain McKenzie, CEO of The Guild of Property Professionals, says: “Digital communication and cohesion is long overdue between the stakeholders involved in the moving process.

“Finding ways to reduce the time it takes for a property transaction to take place will be highly beneficial to both the industry and of course our customers who are eager to move into their new property as quickly as possible.”

This article originally appeared in The Negotiator.