Based in Bristol, Clifton Private Finance is an award-winning, independent property and business finance brokerage, providing financial solutions for UK and international clients for residential and commercial property.
Financial services firms often provide a wide range of products to their clients, so they’re left vulnerable to money laundering in a multitude of different ways – this often makes AML compliance measures complex to implement.
Prior to using SmartSearch, Clifton Private Finance were using manual, time-consuming methods to verify their clients, spending 3-4 hours per week meeting AML obligations. Given the regulated nature of their business and the fluctuating volume of checks and monitoring undertaken daily, they needed a flexible service with progressive technology, that is not only easily accessible but offers reliability across the board.
When scoping the market for a digital compliance solution they found most providers were clunky and could not provide instant results and reporting. After witnessing the SmartSearch platform, they quickly identified speed of delivery in a centralised system was key to a successful and cost-effective compliance programme that could drive efficiencies for the business.
Not long after becoming a SmartSearch customer, did the solution prove its worth and add value to the business. With the help of SmartSearch’s technical expertise and innovative API technology, the company easily integrated their existing systems with an open API, meaning Clifton Private Finance only needed to input their client data once - all information is automatically entered into the system enabling them to enhance their compliance solution quickly and efficiently.
Clifton Private Finance instantly took advantage of the UK individual and international business checks which drastically improved their onboarding processes. By keeping all records including the monitoring of individuals and businesses in a centralised platform the business were able to maintain a user-friendly interface and process for their end customer, whilst having complete confidence they are meeting AML obligations.
Document verification was another challenge for Clifton Private Finance as the team wasted hours of time collecting physical documents from their clients. However, the cost-effective SmartDoc solution allowed document checks to be made on global clients without the need for face-to-face communication, using facial recognition technology to further enhance their digital identity procedures.
“The ability to use passports and driving licence information to verify the clients. This gives us added confidence when running a UK individual check and is a sure-fire way to know that our clients are who they say they are - it couldn't be more straightforward to verify someone's identity!”
Sunil Karadia, Compliance Adviser
After implementing SmartSearch, Clifton Private Finance saw immediate results in three key areas: improved productivity, streamlined customer onboarding and compliance support.
By automating their internal processes, Clifton Private Finance were able to function faster and more efficiently, reducing the time spent on meeting AML requirements by 50%. The ability to perform UK individual checks in under 2 seconds has delivered a seamless customer onboarding process, gaining instant access to audit trails and reports. SmartSearch’s expertise alongside a dedicated Customer Success Team has helped Clifton Private Finance achieve the required results from its AML platform, whilst saving the company valuable
time and money.
“SmartSearch have completely exceeded our expectations, the two main things that have stood out is the usability of the platform and the exceptional level of customer service.”
Sunil Karadia, Compliance Adviser