Scare Tactic or Sound Advice? Compliance warning to agents

A company in the identity verification sector is warning that anti-money laundering checks are set to reach a new intensity in the coming months.

All estate agents and certain letting agency businesses must be registered with HMRC for anti-money laundering. This includes lettings agents managing properties charging a monthly rent of EUR 10,000 or more.

Credas Technologies says it’s looked at AML registrations and found that spring is the busiest time of the year for estate agents.

And it claims this spring could be busier than most, as data shows a rise of 21.6 per cent in registrations so far this year compared with the same period of early 2022.

In 2020-21, the most AML registrations came in during summer most likely driven by the housing market boom created by the government’s pandemic stamp duty holiday which came into effect in July 2020. In 2021-22, however, spring was the busiest time of the year, a trend which it says has continued into this year.

In 2022-23, it is expected that spring will account for 28 per cent of all AML registrations, followed by 26.5 per cent during summer, a projected 24.1 per cent during the upcoming winter and, lastly, 21.4 per cent during autumn. 

Company chief executive Tim Barnett says agents need to have the required AML measures in place to process all of the required registrations without a spike in consumer activity “causing an operational bottleneck.”