Millar & Bryce, Scotland’s premier land property search expert, has today announced its partnership with Armalytix, a data intelligence firm that allows the safe sharing of financial insights.

With Source of Funds (SoF) and Share of Wealth (SoW) checks both a mandatory requirement, this partnership will allow Millar & Bryce’s legal customers to conduct faster and more effective checks that provide greater insights and reduce their risk in transactions.

Home movers are able to share data via Open Banking services to deliver the financial insight law firms require to run comprehensive anti-money laundering (AML), fraud and financial risk checks. Evidence collated via Armalytix can be used to build the rationale as to how a client can fund the transaction and provide assurance that these funds were obtained through legal and visible means.

Millar & Bryce customers will also have access to new modular features, including;

• Dedicated Commercial Property journey
• Income Verification
• Upfront financial fact findings
• Market-leading analysis
• Legal Eye endorsed questionnaires

Richard Hepburn, Managing Director at Millar & Bryce, commented:

“We’re delighted to be signing this partnership agreement and working with one of the UK’s foremost companies in the provision of data for AML checks. This agreement will allow Millar & Bryce customers to enhance their AML checks and will provide them with peace of mind that they have all the information necessary to make a decision on a client and demonstrate that to the regulators.

“Our commitment to the continual improvement of our tech stack to complement the huge knowledge and experience we have within the team is now bearing fruit, and we are now seeking to further enhance that via relationships with data providers such as Armalytix.”

 Tom Lyes, Head of Legal and Property at Armalytix, stated:

“Partnerships are incredibly important to us at Armalytix and we’re excited to be working with our first partner in Scotland. From speaking to Millar & Bryce’s MD, Richard Hepburn, and Director of Operations, Gary Donaldson, it’s really clear that they have a wealth of experience in the Scottish market and really know their clients’ regulatory requirements. Our partnership allows access to our market leading solution to transform the complex, manual process of Source of Funds and Wealth checks.”

We’re holding a joint webinar on Wednesday 11th October looking at the challenges faced by property lawyers when it comes to collecting and reviewing SoF information and how technology can help aid faster, more accurate risk based decisions. Click here to register for the webinar.

Property title and land register information provider Millar & Bryce is to partner with the Scottish Empty Homes Partnership following a successful trial period.

The Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, funded by the Scottish Government and hosted by charity Shelter Scotland, aims to support councils to bring 43,000 empty properties across Scotland back into use.

The initiative is undertaken in partnership with local authorities who identify the private owners of empty homes and support the property to become a home for someone again.

Transparency of property ownership can be a challenge in Scotland where over 30% of land and property is locked in the historic 400-year-old Sasine Register.

Unlocking this data and providing answers on ownership is the main barrier to getting homes that have been empty for a significant period, back into occupation.

Using its 400 years of Sasine Register expertise and digital platforms, Millar & Bryce helped Moray Council identify the private owners of a number of empty homes.

Following the successful trial, Millar & Bryce will be able to collaborate with other local authorities in the SEHP network and help them unlock access to the empty homes in their area.

Andy Moseley, policy and projects manager, Scottish Empty Homes Partnership, said: “Empty homes are a wasted resource at a time of a housing emergency in Scotland, and it is our mission to make sure these homes are brought back into use wherever possible.”

“However, there are challenges to this, including difficulties in finding out who owns an empty property, where they have been empty for several years or even decades in some cases. Millar and Bryce have been able to address these issues and help Local Authorities speed up the process through their search expertise and tech led platforms. We’re looking forward to working with them in the future and unlocking access to more empty homes across Scotland.”

Richard Hepburn, managing director of Millar & Bryce, a Landmark Information Group business, added: “With the property market under pressure, it is vital that we are able to bring homes back into use to boost supply.

“The opportunity to deploy Millar and Bryce’s skills in complex property and land ownership identification in such a beneficial way for communities across Scotland will help to ensure we can unlock homes quicker for people.”