Movera has established a new dedicated Know Your Client (KYC) team to handle source of funds checks and anti-money laundering processes for its conveyancing arms, ONP Solicitors and Cavendish Legal Group.
The initiative forms part of Movera’s wider strategy to streamline home-moving and allow its property lawyers to spend more time managing client relationships and progressing transactions.
Source of funds checks are an essential but often time-consuming part of conveyancing. By creating a dedicated team trained in KYC and financial due diligence, Movera aims to begin checks earlier in the process and run them in parallel with other legal work. This approach is designed to reduce transaction times, identify issues faster, and ensure full compliance with regulatory obligations.
Each member of the new team has been recruited for their experience in the financial sector and their understanding of the due diligence required in property transactions. The team will be led by Natalie Brown, deputy money laundering reporting officer at Movera, who has spent more than 11 years with the business. The unit will operate within the company’s operational support division.
Movera will also employ technology from Thirdfort to manage client verification and ensure compliance standards are met efficiently.
Brown (pictured) said: “Introducing a KYC team has transformed the transaction process for all our property lawyers, allowing them to focus on the job at hand while our KYC handlers make light work of the source of funds process.
“For many of our lawyers who have built strong relationships with their clients, investigating source of funds can also be a challenging distraction. With this new specialist team, our property lawyers can focus on prioritising their clients’ transactions and completions.”
Craig Underwood, group chief operating officer at Movera, added: “We asked our property lawyers how we could improve the conveyancing process, streamline their client’s transactions and put more time back into their days.
“The feedback was unanimous that KYC, AML and source of funds processes were time consuming and introduced delays for their clients. Their feedback highlighted the difference it would make to output if we had a dedicated team to focus on this element of the process.
“We asked, we listened, and we’ve improved the process for both colleagues and clients.”
