Regulated firms, particularly estate agents, who take on new business clients are leaving themselves exposed to serious red flags by not completing critical verification checks, new survey data has uncovered.
Research by anti-money laundering (AML) platform SmartSearch found 59% of regulated firms such as solicitors and estate agents fail to carry out checks on businesses they work with.
Only 40% said they ‘often’ identify the owners and the directors of the business, for example, rather than in every case.