ETSOS taking no risks with latest SRA report

10th July 2014

Conveyancing technology specialist ETSOS has pointed to the SRA’s latest Risk Outlook as an endorsement of its ongoing efforts to embed compliance within its search ordering platform.

The 2014/15 report highlights the growing threat of both money laundering and bogus firms, whilst also warning against an emerging trend of a lack of independence.

ETSOS clients have long had the option of ordering AML checks from within the online platform, and with the Lawyer Checker law firm identity authentication tool added last year, users now have a strong line of defence against the rising tide of conveyancing fraud.

With the ETSOS system documenting and archiving requests and findings, and in many instances integrating with a firm’s case management solution, COLP’s and COFA’s can also point to an embedded process and detailed audit trail as evidence of professional due diligence.

Phil Natusch, ETSOS’s managing director, comments, “Our founding ethos was all about making our users’ lives easier. In the beginning our efforts were focused very much on speeding and simplifying the search ordering process, but there’s a new challenge today. Compliance is arguably the biggest concern amongst conveyancers and as the Risk Outlook implies, it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. But if we’re about making things as easy for our users as possible, then we have to do all we can to alleviate the compliance burden. It’s an ongoing effort, and one that embraces not just the SRA but standards such as CQS too. That’s why our Quotation & Referral System, for example, has been designed deliberately to provide an end-to-end solution for the handling of enquiries, as mandated by CQS.

Last but not least, our status as a search aggregator rather than a provider enables us to give users complete market oversight, allowing them in turn to make informed choices and safeguard their provision of independent advice.

We don’t expect the compliance challenge to end any time soon and we’ll continue to identify and introduce the best protection into the ETSOS platform.”

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