Written by:
Grant Yuill
Head of Marketing & Customer Engagement
It is a challenging time for SME law firms to allocate resources to their AML work – but for even the smallest firms, attention to detail can be the difference between catching a criminal and becoming embroiled in their misdeeds. It is worth the effort, as without sufficient training, guidance, and the best technology in place every firm’s most precious attribute – their good name – could be in jeopardy.
Changes to rules and regulations
Each year, new government rules and Law Society guidelines on anti-money laundering come into force. These regulations require firms to assess considerably more information, making due diligence a much more involved process than it was previously. This presents law firms with a unique set of challenges.
As all law firms know, the importance of carrying out these checks goes way beyond doing compliance for compliance sake. It plays a crucial role in the broader fight against financial crime, helping to prevent money laundering.
Making checks easy
AML checks integrating with case management software is of course nothing new. However, the methods used by criminals have become ever more sophisticated, as have the methods used to prevent their crime; today, that’s in the form of ever more complex regulations that are being changed and updated fast.
In light of the new AML guidance released in January and March of this year, it is the responsibility of tech providers, like Denovo and Amiqus ID, to be on hand to support any legal firm in understanding and applying the right technology to tackle conventional methods of AML checking.
That’s why we must ensure that integrating Amiqus with our case management software is simpler than ever. And with improvements to overall efficiency and time saving features being added every month, its introduction is going to be a potential game changer firms.
Simple solutions to complex problems
Those who are aware of how this technology can help are already reaping the benefits and have a new weapon in their arsenal in the form of Amiqus ID. Combined with Denovo’s Case Management system, Caseload, they combine to make the relatively complex and time-consuming KYC process simple. The fact that the Law Society’s actively promote developments in Amiqus and Denovo only underscores the importance they place on this technology in the continued fight against financial crime.
Firms already using Amiqus within CaseLoad rely on it to securely handle money laundering checks and client onboarding. This time-consuming and laborious process has now become as easy as sending an email. Many firms we work with now use Amiqus with all new clients, which they describe as a “seamless, convenient and cost-effective solution”.
Listening to law firm challenges
We are constantly listening to our Law firm partners talk about the pain points in their daily working life. This is what’s required to understand how the practice of law, specifically AML checking in this case, works today. Given the feedback we received to further reduce the time spent on AML work, our software development team have worked with Amiqus to introduce new, smart solutions to save even more time.
Here’s an example of a recent update:
CaseLoad will now allow you to complete the AML certification for every single matter through the course of the year. Gone will be the days of having to hunt for days and days to find out all the unusual transaction details to report on them. The AML Certificate preparation document will then answer the majority of questions so you can submit the annual return in a matter of minutes. Moreover, you can have peace of mind and ensure automatic AML compliance with our Amiqus integration, which will store all ID verification details directly against the client file when it is marked as reviewed in Amiqus.
Next steps
Having the Amiqus and CaseLoad platforms integrated in one place lets your firm manage your onboarding and compliance remotely and conveniently. So, whether you’re hiring a new member of staff, legally supporting someone through their first house purchase, or carrying out due diligence in bulk for a new client or class action, Amiqus covers the full range of identity and financial status checks needed. And with even more efficiency enhancing features being added to the integration with CaseLoad regularly, there has never been a better time to introduce it into your practice.
To find out more about our integration with Amiqus ID please email info@denovobi.com or call us on 0141 331 5290.
