October 25, 2024 ECCTA: How Elemental will help Law Firms and their Clients
In mid-October 2024, Companies House announced it will start rolling out rules around authorised corporate service providers (ACSPs) and Identity verification (IDV) from Spring 2025.
Our team at Elemental has begun building services and products to meet the upcoming requirements, ahead of the confirmation of final regulations and technical guidance.
Given the importance of these upcoming changes, we are receiving regular enquiries from law firms, clients and other intermediaries asking how we can support with these new regulations. Here we set out how we are planning to help.
Background
In October 2024, Companies House published its implementation timing plan which gave important information on timings for its long-anticipated overhaul.
We learned the following planned implementation dates:
By spring 2025:
- checks on ACSPs in place to authorise them to carry out verification services.
- Individuals can start to verify their identity
By autumn 2025
- identity verification a compulsory part of new incorporations and director/PSC appointments.
- 12-month transition phase for all existing directors and PSCs verification commences.
How Elemental Will Help
1) Elemental will offer an ID verification service.
There is a huge task ahead. There are around 7 million individuals that need to be verified and the feedback we have received from most firms and intermediaries is that they will not be offering this service.
We know Companies House will offer a verification service directly, but years of experience suggests that this service will not meet the requirements of many law firms and their clients.
Elemental will be offering a standalone ID verification service built with professional service providers and their clients in mind, including large corporations, transaction work, and high-net-worth individuals.
2) Elemental will offer an ACSP filing service
Elemental will be registering as an ACSP to carry out filings for law firms, other intermediaries and their clients. For our existing clients, we do not expect any material difference in ways of working. There are many reasons why one may use an ACSP, in some instances, it is mandatory, in others ACSPs will bring much needed expertise and convenience.
As it stands the draft legislation poses a number of new challenges for those looking to file information on the register. Examples include:
- The increased risk profile associated with filing incorrect information, knowingly or unknowingly.
- Employees unable to file for group companies where they are not an officer or employee of the entity.
- Overseas Trust and Corporate Service Providers unable to register as an ACSP due to lack of AML supervision in the UK.
We are looking to support clients with these challenges. There is a slew of statutory instruments yet to be published and the above is subject to change. We will continue to publish updates as more information is made available. If you would like to discuss how we can support your firm and clients with ECCTA please get in touch.
