Anti Money Laundering (AML) Checks

In order to comply with the HMRC Money Laundering regulations, Alto allows the following:

• You can conduct AML checks from within Alto, allowing you to carry out your checks seamlessly without leaving the page, with instant results
• You can store and view information about the previous Money Laundering Checks you have carried out
• You can warn users that the check has not been carried out for the vendor/landlord/applicant, when making an offer or changing the property status. The completion of this check can be a mandatory setting or given to the user as an advisory warning that can be overridden
• You can report on all records that have not had money laundering checks completed

This article includes: 

• Set up Money Laundering Checks
• Conducting Money Laundering Checks
• Checking if Money Laundering Checks have been completed

Set up Money Laundering Checks

There are two types of Money Laundering Checks available, the Automatic check and the Manual check.

Automatic check

The Automatic check is powered by SmartSearch, Experian and Equifax. You will enter into an agreement directly with SmartSearch in order to run the AML check, and you'll also receive their contact and support details should you have any queries.

Manual check

The Manual check is a manual process in Alto where you record details of the AML check that's taken place.

To initially configure your Manual check settings:

1. Click Tools on the main toolbar
2. In the dropdown menu, click Templates and admin
3. On the side menu, under System Tools, click System Administration
4. Click Branches
5. Click Edit next to the relevant branch
6. Scroll down to Money Laundering Check Visibility Options. There are three options within the dropdown menu:
   1. None - When set, within the Manual check tab of the Money Laundering Checks section, no messages will appear but the fields can still be used. This is the default setting
   2. Show - When set, the user will be prompted with warning messages but can choose to override these
   3. Mandatory - When set, the user will be prompted with warning messages and will not be allowed to continue until all the required Money Laundering Checks (Automatic check or Manual check) are completed
7. Scroll down and click Save

If Money Laundering Check Visibility Options has been set as either Show or Mandatory in the Branches settings, and one of the following actions takes place:

• Change Status is used to change a property from Instructed to Available or from Withdrawn to Available
• an Offer is accepted,

a warning message will display. When making a check of the records, Alto will include the vendor (all of them in the case of multiple vendors), the Landlord and/or the Applicant.

The warning message content and behaviour will depend upon whether or not the Mandatory setting has been used:

• If the Mandatory setting has been set, the message will be:

You can only click OK and the message will close. You must complete the Money Laundering Checks section (Automatic check or Manual check) and then return to the screen to continue with the action being taken.

• If the Mandatory setting hasn't been set, the message will be:

You can either click Yes and continue with the action you're taking, or you can click No and complete the Money Laundering Checks section (Automatic check or Manual check) and then return to the screen to continue with the action being taken.

Conducting Money Laundering Checks

1.  Click Contacts on the main toolbar
2. Select the relevant contact from Recent & Favourite Contacts
   1. Alternatively, find the contact using the Search Contacts bar in the top right
3. Click Contact on the side menu
4. Click the Position top tab
5. In the Money Laundering Checks section, there are tabs for an Automatic check and a Manual check

Automatic check:

1. Click Start AML Check
2. An Anti-Money Laundering check page opens up within Alto. Enter the Date of birth for the contact
   (the contacts name is automatically pulled from their Alto contact record)
3. Tick the checkbox for I confirm I've seen ID for xxxx to validate you've seen the relevant document (Drivers Licence or Passport)
4. Check the contacts Home address is correct. Click the pencil to edit the address fields, if required
   (the contacts address is automatically pulled from their Alto contact record)
5. Click Start check
6. The check (which is powered by SmartSearch, Experian and Equifax) runs and provides instant Results, which are automatically documented in Alto. You can also click Download PDF to download the results (if required by agency practices)
7. Click Close

Manual check:

1. Click Manual check
2. Tick ID Check Completed if a check has been completed
3. Enter information within the Notes field that outlines what documents you've seen and whether they're high or low risk
4. Click Save

Checking if Money Laundering Checks have been completed

There are two ways you can check to see if Money Laundering Checks have been completed. 

• The first way is on an individual contact level.
  Within the Automatic check tab, you can view a list of Previous Checks that have been completed. This includes the date and time the check was Requested, the Person the check was carried out on, the Outcome of the check, and who the check was Requested By. If you click View Details, you can view the Results of the check, and download the full breakdown of the check in .pdf format

Manual check contains a tickbox named ID Check Completed and a free text field for Money Laundering Notes, which is mandatory once the tick has been checked

When a check is completed, an entry is placed within Previous Checks, on the Overview Recent Activity and on the Timeline to record that this action has been taken

• The second way encompasses multiple contacts.
  There is a match group that you can use which reports any contacts who have active offers, but have not yet had the details in the Money Laundering Checks section (Automatic check or Manual check) completed

To find the match group:

1. Click Contacts on the main toolbar
2. Click Groups in the top left
3. In Default Groups in the top left, click AML Checks
4. You have the choice between 3 dropdown menu filters:
   1. Contact Type - Applicants, Landlords, Vendors
   2. Branches - All Branches, Individual Branch
   3. Consent - All Contacts, With General Marketing, With Property Matching, With Both

If you change the Contact Type to Vendors, you can change the Stage to make the list more manageable.

If required, you can slide the toggle alongside AML Checks to pin a list of contacts. Pinning a list of contacts will mean:

• This exact list of contacts will be saved until you later decide to unpin it
• Alto will remember your current position in this list
• You can save a description by which to remember this list

You can then expand the group and work through the group.

Related articles:

Anti Money Laundering with SmartSearch