Credas Technologies has launched Know Your Business Reports (KYB) to seamlessly run checks on commercial property buyers in just one click.
According to the latest figures, there are 280,021 homes registered to foreign homeowners, with individual homeowners accounting for 67% of these homes, versus 33% being owned by overseas companies.
The number of overseas property owners has increased by 3.2% in the last year, with the North West (5.4%), the West Midlands (4.9%) and London (4.0%) seeing the largest increases of all regions.
The Government introduced new regulations in 2022, the Register of Overseas Entities, to clamp down on money laundering via overseas ownership.
However, this legislation only applies to overseas entities transacting with property or land in the UK, overseas entities, or individuals that are purchasing property through a UK registered company are not covered.
Credas Technologies has launched a new KYB solution which allows agents to run checks on key individuals purchasing property who are identified in the Credas KYB Reports, in just one click.
The KYB Reports include easy to follow visuals of global group structures which show the ultimate holding company, together with instant, comprehensive reports on over 400 million private and public companies, across over 200 countries and territories.
Compiled from Companies House and internal company registry information; UBO verification; ownership structure checks; AML watchlist screening; and corporate document verification, the KYB Reports are available in one platform.
Tim Barnett, CEO of Credas, said: “Our new KYB solution helps firms easily identify Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO) and group structures in a single click.
“UBO identification is vital to the ongoing effort to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
“Traditional business due diligence methods involve an overwhelming number of documents and filings that needed to be meticulously read through, to connect the corporate dots in order to eventually find the beneficial owners.
“Our solution instantly provides a clear and concise report that identifies all beneficial owners which you can then run KYC/AML checks on.”
