Just ONE estate agency has signed up to verify overseas entities

Just one estate agency and 31 law firms have signed up to become UK-regulated agents to verify overseas entities, analysis from anti-money laundering specialists Thirdfort reveals.

In total, 183 firms have registered with Companies House to become UK-regulated agents – up from 146 since Thirdfort previously analysed the figures in March 2023. Such agents can complete verification checks on beneficial owners of an overseas entity.

LAW FIRMS

Of these businesses, just 31 are law firms – or 0.3% of the 9,341 law firms in England and Wales, according to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority.

Of the remaining 152 firms registered, 97 are accountancy firms, and only one is an estate agency, which has not been named. The rest are a mixture of business services, company formation, wealth management or other financial services firms.

Harriet Holmes (main picture), AML Services Manager at Thirdfort, says: “We’ve seen a notable increase in the number of overseas entities complying with the new rules.

“Yet law firms and estate agents remain cautious about verifying these entities. This is no surprise, given the numerous warnings about additional regulatory requirements and the associated risks.”

LION’S SHARE

She adds: “Accountancy firms are now undertaking the lion’s share of verification work and we’ve seen similar warnings from organisations such as the Institute of Financial Accountants about the legal, regulatory and reputational risks.”

This analysis follows a recent announcement from the Government that the ROE now has more than 30,000 registrations.

According to Companies House the ROE has a compliance rate of around 90%, and the data on the register has been accessed nearly one million times.

Yet, there remain concerns around how the new rules can be circumvented, including ownership through trusts and via jurisdictions where information about who owns the company is not public.

A report from the University of Warwick’s CAGE Research Centre found that 152,000 properties in England and Wales are currently held by overseas entities, though information about beneficial ownership is not available for 71% of them.