In line with the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (January 2020), forming new companies is an activity which requires Inform Direct, as a provider of formation software, to carry out AML checks.
As discussed in this guide, where you are a Regulated Firm you are able to benefit from the simplified Professional Formation, marked 2 in the below image.
To benefit from this approach:
A. You/your firm must be regulated
This can be by one or more of the below:
- A Recognised Professional Body e.g. ICAEW, AAT or Law Society etc. See here for a full list.
- HMRC for AML purposes. (Either as an accountancy service provider, or a trust or company service provider).
We will need to check this (as part of our AML procedures).
B. Assuming you/your firm is regulated then we just need to carry out an identity check on a beneficial owner of the regulated firm. Broadly, a Beneficial Owner is one that owns or controls greater than 25% of the shares of the company, or that exercises significant control over the management of the company.
To do this we need a copy of:
- One identification document – usually a passport or photo card driving licence; and
- Confirmation of residential address – usually a recent utility bill or driving licence if not already used for the purposes of identification.
If you qualify for the simplified procedure and have not yet sent us the required proof please get in touch. Send an email to support@informdirect.co.uk confirming which institution you are regulated by and we will reply explaining how you can send us the required documents simply and securely.
Note: Whilst we aim to process these checks relatively quickly, we do request that where you anticipate the need to form companies in the future that these details are supplied to us in advance.
There is no charge for us to carry out an AML check on you/your firm and once done you will be able to form companies without encountering the need to supply further information about the identity of your clients or indeed pay the £7.10 fee.