By Legal Futures Associate Checkboard [1]
For law firms, anti-money laundering compliance is under the microscope.
With over £100 billion laundered through the UK economy each year, the pressure on legal professionals to maintain rigorous AML controls is only set to grow as the FCA prepares to take over monitoring.
As the FCA steps into its new role, it’s expected to focus on enforcement rather than simply writing new rules, and that means law firms that have been coasting on “good enough” compliance practices will find themselves exposed to greater scrutiny.
Can your AML controls stand up to this heightened scrutiny?
The answer for most firms is probably “no”—and that’s where Checkboard steps in.
Beyond the bare minimum
The bare minimum isn’t the same as being well protected.
If you’re not performing thorough client screening, biometric identity verification, reliable source of funds checks, and continuous monitoring for emerging risks, you’re not doing compliance properly either.
Done poorly, it leaves your firm vulnerable to regulatory action, reputational damage, and the very real possibility of facilitating financial crime.
Checkboard helps you eliminate those risks.
It’s an all-in-one AML platform designed to take your firm beyond “good enough”.
Instead of juggling multiple systems and chasing clients for ID documents, Checkboard unifies AML screening, source of funds checks, biometric ID verification, and ongoing monitoring for PEPs and sanctions within a single, seamless workflow.
This helps you close the gaps in your compliance strategy.
Straightforward process
The good thing is, Checkboard makes going beyond “good enough” a straightforward process, for both your team and your clients:
- Your client receives a secure link to download the Checkboard app
- From there, they can upload all the required documents
- They are then guided through biometric ID verification
- They can then connect their bank account through open banking for source of funds checks
When it’s done, your firm receives a comprehensive report that plainly flags any areas of concern.
The whole process is quick, intuitive, and removes the sources of friction that cause compliance to slip. When AML is this easy to do properly, there’s no excuse not to.
The stakes
Regulatory action against law firms for AML failures carries serious consequences—fines, reputational harm, and criminal liability.
But beyond regulatory risk, there’s a broader responsibility to the UK economy to play its role in keeping illicit funds out of circulation.
Checkboard helps you meet this threat head-on by replacing piecemeal, inconsistent processes with foolproof, defensible, end-to-end compliance. This helps you get on the right side of the regulators, protect your clients from risk, and demonstrate that your firm takes its obligations seriously.
Get in touch with Checkboard to find out how to go beyond “good enough” [2].