The Home Builders Federation (HBF) has announced that following a three-month consultation, run by Etive, that it has now published new and updated customer identity verification (IDV) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks.
The new process is designed to improve the customer experience in a way that aligns with emerging government legislation and standards.
The new process aims to remove the requirement for a customer to show their ID separately to a number of different parties through their purchase journey, and having to upload different information onto different systems. Customers will instead have to prove their ID just once in the home buying process, reducing frustrations, costs, delays and the risk of errors in the process.
In designing the standards, the HBF says it looked to create an industry-centered set of rules that reflect the good practices that have been identified amongst housebuilders through the consultation.
The HBF says it also wanted to develop an enhanced due diligence option, both to reflect the growing need for stronger AML and IDV checks for certain transactions, and to look to future use by other relying parties in the sales process, including conveyancers and lenders.
Some 84 HBF members responded to the consultation’s survey, which was supported by one-to-one in-depth interviews with a range of different sized builders from across our membership groups. This enabled the HBF to delve deeply into the required standards, processes and procedures to help all new home builders comply with their regulatory obligations, and ensure alignment to planned government legislation.
The output has been the development of two new standards, which appear to go over and above the standards set out by DSIT (Dept. for Science, Innovation & Technology) to facilitate the selling of a home, but are compliant with the DIATF (Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework) and the HM Land Registry ‘safe harbour’.
Steve Turner, executive director of the HBF, commented: “We were delighted by the response to the consultation and the level of engagement from across the industry. These have allowed us to develop a robust set of processes that work for builders of all sizes. The new procedures are a huge step forward that will benefit both businesses and our customers and reduce delays, costs and the opportunity for errors.”
Stuart Young, of Etive, said: “The consultation highlighted the wide variation in the range and quality of validation and verification checks carried out. It also provides confidence that a standard for IDV and AML will drive the industry towards higher standards, reducing the likelihood of money laundering and ID/property fraud, which can only benefit the sector, buyers, and the UK economy.”
The HBF is holding an online industry briefing session on Wednesday 22nd March at 3pm. If you would like to attend to learn more, email Stuart at s.young@etive.org.
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