Newsletter February 2018

WHAT DO CLIENTS MOST NEED TO KNOW?

We are increasing the work we do to inform and educate home buyers and sellers about the conveyancing process, how to work with their conveyancer and what they themselves can do to make the process as smooth as possible.

To help focus our effort, we’d like to know which issues you think currently need most urgent attention.

Take part in our poll now: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LLSDTB6

CLC CONFERENCE 2019 – SAVE THE DATE

Eight out of ten of who attended our conference in January said they would definitely take part again next year.

Next year’s conference is on Wednesday, 23^rd January, 2019 at Etc. Venues, County Hall, London.

Reserve your place now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/clc-conference-2019-tickets-42566195637

DIRECTOR AND OWNERS – MAKE SURE YOU KEEP US UPDATED

Remember, if you appoint (or have appointed) and new Director/Owner of your practice, you must let the CLC know. Drop the Licensing team an email at licensing@clc-uk.org

FASTER PAYMENTS

The Faster Payments Scheme Limited is planning to increase its transaction limit to £20 million by the end of March 2018.

The increase from the current limit of £250,000 will create opportunities to innovate and improve real-time payment services for end-users, offering our Participants the flexibility to unlock the power of real-time payments for completely new customers and uses.

Whilst the overall scheme limit is increasing, transaction limits for customers will remain a competitive issue. Financial institutions will continue to be able to set their own limits for their own customers, within the Scheme maximum.

Directly connected Participants of Faster Payments will have the opportunity to determine if they wish to offer a higher Faster Payment limit to their customers. This enables Participants to offer different limits to different types of customer – giving the flexibility to ensure their service is tailored to each customer’s needs.

Agency banks and service users who are looking take advantage of the higher limit should contact their bank or sponsoring institution to establish whether they are planning to increase their limit. If your bank or sponsoring institution is planning an increase, you should also consider if you will need to make any internal system changes.

The increase to the scheme transaction limit follows extensive research and consultation with Faster Payments’ Participants and users, as well as rigorous live testing. Feedback from users has made clear that there is significant appetite for 24/7, real-time high value payments. Increasing the Scheme Limit will act as an enabler for Payment Service Providers to meet this demand and help promote further competition and innovation within the industry.

The increase is subject to final implementation activities which are planned to take place during February and March 2018. The value limits for directly connected participants are published on the Faster Payments website: http://www.fasterpayments.org.uk/transaction-limits. These limits will be updated on an ongoing basis to confirm any increases by directly connected Participants following the increase to £20m. If you have any further questions about this change please contact Development@fasterpayments.org.uk.

METRO BANK

A reminder that Metro Bank now admits CLC-regulated firms on to their panel

The criteria for panel membership are

• Minimum 2 partners
• At least 120 conveyancing transactions in the last 12 months
• Professional indemnity insurance limit of at least £2m (this is of course a CLC requirement for all firms

Unlike SRA-regulated firms, CLC firms do not need CQS accreditation in order to act for Metro Bank.

If you have not already heard from ULS about the panel scheme and meet the Metro Bank criteria, please feel free to use the following link to register and apply to join the panel.

Link to register: https://panelapplications.ulst.co.uk/Login.aspx