With the aftermath of COVID still playing out at the beginning of January 2022, many would have hoped for a more predictable spring. The conflict in Ukraine, and the resulting ramp-up of sanctions of both individuals and companies, put paid to that idea.

The Economic Crime Act in March soon followed. Amongst other changes, firms can now be held liable even where they have no knowledge or reasonable cause to suspect that a transaction they’re party to is in breach of sanctions. And with the SRA announcing a significant rise in enforcement fines, staying on top of rule changes has never been more pressing. 

Simon began working in the legal sector for a top 100 law firm in 2004, having previously been a Compliance Officer and MLRO for regional and national IFA’s. He also has experience of working in an advisory capacity as a financial planner and mortgage advisor, positions he held prior to working in compliance.

His roles have encompassed a wide range of duties, from client on-boarding, auditing, the provision of training and advising colleagues with respect to their AML and POCA obligations, dealing with Suspicious Activity Reports and liaising with law enforcement. Simon brings a wealth of experience in the field and a practical, down to earth approach to providing advice.

Simon Harbord

Harriet has more than a decade of experience in AML and Sanctions Compliance at both UK and global legal practices. Her roles have encompassed everything from regulatory compliance to process improvements to client onboarding, to dealing with Suspicious Activity Reports. As AML Services Manager, Harriet helps Thirdfort's clients meet their compliance obligations, she has a passion for how AML compliance can make the world a safer place for everyone – and for stopping the baddies!

Harriet Holmes

In this exclusive panel discussion, we called upon the advice of our experts to summarise the impact of the most significant regulation changes of 2022 and look ahead to help you prepare for the rule changes that are set to come into force in 2023 and beyond.

Regulations in review: What last year’s changes mean for 2023

Regulations in Review

For both consumers and property professionals, this promises a frictionless, more user-friendly process with significantly increased resilience to fraudulent attacks and money laundering.

Understanding what these changes will mean will allow forward-thinking property professionals to benefit from these changes. It’s essential for the industry to stay ahead of the disruption to avoid being overwhelmed by it. 

Our online panel of industry experts explore the implications of this high-velocity digital transformation. And provide insights into how you and your firm can best prepare.

Mike joined HM Land Registry as General Counsel and Deputy Chief Land Registrar in February 2018 and took the role of Acting Chief Executive and Chief Land Registrar from 1 January 2019 until 11 November 2019.
Mike graduated from Imperial College in mechanical engineering before converting to the law. He then worked as a solicitor in London for 15 years, acting for commercial property clients. Mike spent 11 years at English Heritage as its legal director and corporate secretary. He gained board-level experience of significant organisational change and major reform of heritage law and policy.

Mike Harlow

Beth is the Director of Delivery for the Conveyancing Association, with over 30 years' industry experience. She is co-Chair of the Home Buying and Selling Group as well as co-ordinator of the industry group for Leasehold Property Enquiry Form and Freehold Management Enquiry Form and more recently the Buying and Selling Property Information (BASPI) dataset.
Winner of the Modern Law Outstanding Achievement Award 2018, Beth regularly appears in print and on radio & television, including BBC1, BBC2 and BBC Wales, she also regularly chairs roundtable debates and panel discussion on all things conveyancing.

Beth Rudolf

Timothy Douglas is Head of Policy and Campaigns at Propertymark, a professional body for property agents with over 17,000 members across the UK, working in residential sales, lettings, commercial property, valuing and auctioneering and property inventory services. Timothy leads on the organisation’s policy and campaigns activity across Westminster, the devolved parliaments, and local authorities.
Before Propertymark, Timothy worked as a political advisor for MEPs and for a Minister in the House of Commons.

Timothy Douglas

Sam has established and runs the legal function at Thirdfort. He started his career as a litigator at Mishcon de Reya focusing on fraud and white-collar crime. In recent years, he has worked with startups and fast-growth companies in regulated industries across payments, proptech and legaltech. 
His deep understanding of how fraudsters operate to evade traditional AML processes has allowed Thirdfort to develop one of the most secure digital AML solutions available to legal firms today.

Sam Ruback

“Secure digital buying and selling of property are targeted as being the norm by 2024-25”
In the Strategy 2022+ report, HM Land Registry’s ambition is clear - an end-to-end paperless property transaction, powered by instant data access, enabling homes to be bought and sold digitally. 

The Paperless Property Transaction: Is the industry ready?

In April this year, the government announced steps to make Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies valid forms of payment in the UK. More than 2 million people in the UK have now invested in some form of cryptoassets. But the risk of fraud remains high in this market, with criminals laundering £6.4bn of cryptocurrency in 2021 worldwide (an annual increase of 30%).

Completing major transactions with the likes of Bitcoin alone may not be a reality for many today. But increasing levels of crypto ownership make it imperative for modern firms to have clear processes in place to stay compliant.

In this on-demand session, our panel of crypto and regulatory experts will offer their best practice advice on how to work with crypto and ensure your AML compliance obligations are met. Get a run down of the most relevant legislation related to this developing area of financing and ensure your firm’s approach is future-proofed for working with cryptocurrencies.

In this on-demand session, our panel of crypto and regulatory experts discuss:

Iggy is a Director at Coinbase, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms, where he is focused on investigations and intelligence. Prior to joining the company he was a detective with the Metropolitan Police investigating Cybercrime.

Iggy Azad

Anna is an experienced general criminal law practitioner at the law firm Kingsley Napley. Her advice for working with cryptoassets is regularly sought by clients regarding potential proceeds of crime or money laundering risk. Anna’s analysis of crypto source of funds has allowed her clients to proceed with a range of high-value property transactions.

Anna Holmes

Henry is the CEO and founder of Hoptrail, a UK-based blockchain data firm specialising in on-chain onboarding and analytics. Hoptrail provides insights on cryptocurrency funds and potentially risky transactions for financial institutions, law firms, and other professional services.

Henry Burrows

Jack founded Thirdfort with friend Olly Thornton-Berry in 2017, with a mission to protect life’s big transactions so businesses and their clients can move fearlessly.

Bringing the best of technology, data, and design to solve traditional onboarding challenges, Thirdfort have built a seamless and flexible platform for secure client AML verification. Over 700 law firms and regulated businesses now use Thirdfort to turn their compliance into a competitive advantage.

Jack Bidgood

Our team is ready to walk you through Thirdfort’s range of ID and AML checks, and let you into the secret of how our clients are cutting average onboarding times from five days to 24 hours.

Thirdfort bio

For legal professionals already tasked with keeping on top of AML and Source of Funds/Wealth regulations, cryptoassets are yet another risk factor to be managed. Increasing levels of crypto ownership make it imperative for modern firms to have clear processes in place to stay compliant. In this on-demand session, our panel of crypto and regulatory experts will offer their best practice advice on how to work with cryptoassets with confidence. 

Crypto compliance: The next AML risk frontier

In this exclusive online event, an expert panel of risk and compliance professionals share their best practice advice on how to ensure your KYB processes are up to the task. Hear about how the latest digital tools can help you stay in line with current regulations and protect your firm from repercussions.

Join an expert panel of risk and compliance professionals as they share their best practice advice on how the latest digital tools can help you stay in line with current regulations and protect your firm.

Webinar | Know Your KYB: Corporate Due Diligence in the Age of Sanctions

The current geopolitical landscape continues to present serious challenges for law firms. Particularly those dealing with overseas clients and navigating frequent rule changes around corporate due diligence.

Much of the existing conversation around sanctions has focused on individuals and their personal exposure. But firms working with businesses who they suspect may have links to sanctioned individuals face a host of new Know Your Business (KYB) responsibilities. Identifying UBOs across multiple territories, often with no clear paper trail, is now a test for even seasoned legal professionals.

Know your KYB: Corporate due diligence in the age of sanctions

Know Your KYB: Corporate Due Diligence in the Age of Sanctions

In its duty to set and enforce high professional standards, the SRA is increasingly active in clamping down on ill-prepared firms. As of the end of May 2022, the maximum fine the SRA can issue will jump 1,150%, from £2,000 to £25,000.

It’s more important than ever for compliance professionals to be up-to-date with ever-changing regulations. And to be aware of the policies, controls, and procedures to meet them.

Criminal attacks on the manual anti-money laundering (AML) processes that many legal firms still rely on today are becoming more sophisticated. For these firms, getting AML compliance wrong is risking committing a serious offence. With dire professional and personal repercussions.

In this exclusive online event, hear from a panel of compliance experts and stay on top of the latest AML guidance from the SRA to meet these new threats.

The enforcement of AML compliance: The risks and how firms can prepare

Hear from our panel of regulatory experts to get up to speed with current movements, and what to expect next. Find out the latest best practice on PEP and Sanctions, get practical advice for operating in fluid regulatory times, and have your questions answered.

2022 proved not to be the return to normality that many had hoped for. Geopolitical instability has important implications for law firms, and keeping on top of rapidly changing regulations is a serious challenge.

Sanctions: How law firms can protect themselves in a volatile world

AML regulations are an essential framework for lawyers to cut the risk of serious money laundering offences. Unfortunately, they also provide guidance for criminals looking to exploit the system.

Compliance, by itself, doesn't remove risk, unless lawyers know how these bad guys operate and what to watch out for. We asked a panel of experts for their insight on exactly that.

In this one hour session, you will learn:

AML regulations are an essential framework for lawyers to cut the risk of serious money laundering offences. Unfortunately, they also provide guidance for criminals looking to exploit the system.

Compliance, by itself, doesn't remove risk, unless lawyers know how these bad guys operate and what to watch out for. We asked a panel of experts for their insight on exactly that.

In this one hour session, you will learn:
- How criminals move through and exploit the system
- The warning signs that someone isn’t who they say they are
- How lawyers can best protect their firm from risk

How the bad guys operate: AML compliance vs risk management

How The Bad Guys Operate: AML Compliance vs Risk Management

On 8th December 2021, Thirdfort’s Head of Legal, Sam Ruback, led a panel discussion with experts from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and financial crime specialists, FINTRAIL, to raise awareness within the industry.

Gary brings over a decade of experience to all facets of the prevention and investigation of Fraud. He is responsible, in his current role as Head of National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, for the review and dissemination of all allegations of Fraud and Cyber Crime reported using the Action Fraud system. The NFIB is designed to deliver justice to victims by giving Law enforcement the best opportunity to identify and prosecute offenders.

Detective Superintendent Gary Miles

With a background in intelligence and investigations, Jess applies a risk and threat-based approach to building anti-financial crime frameworks. She has worked with a range of firms to design policies and procedures, implement systems and controls, and to conduct assurance reviews.

Jessica Cath

Sam is Head of Legal at Thirdfort. He started his career as a litigator at Mishcon de Reya focussing on fraud and white collar crime. In recent years, Sam has worked at startups and fast growth companies in regulated industries across payments, proptech and legaltech.

With criminals becoming ever more sophisticated, it’s critical that property professionals keep up to date to recognise the warning signs of fraud, understand new regulatory obligations and implement working practices that reduce their vulnerability to attack.

Home Truths: Financial crime in the property transaction

There’s been such a rapid shift from manual to digital ID checks – accelerated by the social restrictions of the 2020s. Yet without a standard in digital ID, it's been difficult for lawyers to know whether the tools they’re using are sufficient to protect their business and clients from fraud.

HM Land Registry has recognised this challenge and is launching a set of requirements, collectively known as the Digital ID Standard to provide solid guidance to solicitors.

With over 20 years experience working with due diligence technology, Michael joined HM Land Registry in January 2019. He developed the Sign your Deed service and has been involved with the introduction of new practices for the use of e-signatures and, most recently, the Digital ID Standard.

Michael Abraham

Olly founded Thirdfort with partner Jack Bigood in 2017, with the mission of setting new standards in legal security. Bringing technology and design to solve traditional onboarding challenges, Thirdfort dramatically reduces risk for lawyers and makes life a lot easier for clients.

Olly Thornton-Berry

On Wednesday 10th March 2021, Thirdfort hosted a Digital Event with Michael Abraham, Product Manager, and Abbie Purslow, Registrar, from HM Land Registry, in which we discussed their Digital ID Standard (Safe Harbour), how firms will benefit from this and any future plans HM Land Registry have surrounding the security of ID verification in the legal space.

Webinar: HM Land Registry Digital ID Standard

HM Land Registry Digital ID Standard

Learn about how fraud is affecting the UK. 

Learn about the Thirdfort integration with ALB. 

You can now initiate Thirdfort checks, directly from the ALB platform, with no need to access the Thirdfort portal. 

Getting started with ALB and Thirdfort is easy. Watch our on-demand webinar to learn how you can get started and make the most out of this integration. Our experts will be on hand to answer any questions and guide you through the process. 

How to use Thirdfort via the ALB platform

How does the integration work?

How can clients take advantage of this integration?

 How to use Thirdfort via the ALB platform

 Transaction - Is the Industry Ready? | Oct 27th, 12:30pm GMT

Webinar hub

Regulations in review: What last year’s changes mean for 2023

The Paperless Property Transaction: Is the industry ready?

Crypto compliance: The next AML risk frontier

Know your KYB: Corporate due diligence in the age of sanctions

The enforcement of AML compliance: The risks and how firms can prepare

Sanctions: How law firms can protect themselves in a volatile world

How the bad guys operate: AML compliance vs risk management

Home Truths: Financial crime in the property transaction

Webinar: HM Land Registry Digital ID Standard

How to use Thirdfort via the ALB platform