Banks and Clients Conveyancing Lender Panel Compliance Tool

Lexsure’s COMPLETIONmonitor is an online pre- and post-completion checklist for residential conveyancing lawyers. Supported by the CML and PI insurers. COMPLETIONmonitor is a unique risk mitigation tool.

This software facilitates the way you can prove to lender panels that you are, and can remain fully compliant with their requirements, with notifications given on Banks and Clients’s changes. Notwithstanding that utilising COMPLETIONmonitor is not a prerequisite for Banks and Clients , demonstrating you can remain up to date with Banks and Clients’s Handbook requirements is a helpful support to your application to their lender panel and, just as importantly, safeguard your panel standing.

The software generates real-time alerts, automatically produces COLP and CQS reports, and will enhance your firm's efficiency. It is also user friendly, cost-effective and, for many firms, leads to reduced PII premiums.

Find a Law Firm approved by Banks and Clients

Mortgage companies frequently change their requirements. The UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook requirements from Banks and Clients are not guidelines, they are instructions from a client. As with many clients, instructions can change - and they do change, over time:

A Timeline of Policy Changes


Since 2008, Banks and Clients has made 1 revisions or additions to sections of their version of the CML Handbook.
That equates to a section change every 2730.0 days. In total, 0% of the sections of P2 of the UK Finance Lenders’ Handbook for Banks and Clients have been changed since 15/12/2008.

To find out more about lender panel compliance,

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Recent Changes Include

# Date Assoc. Changes Related To
6.14.1 30/11/2015 CML
Building Insurance
Banks and Clients plc approved lawyers additional requirements concerning building insurance

Last update 16/11/2019

FAQs for the Banks and Clients Solicitor Panel from members of the public

A conveyancer my husband and I wanted to use for conveyancing on a purchase said she will levy higher legal fees if my lender is due to their unusual legal requirements. Am I likely to be frustrated using Banks and Clients? Any comments will be appreciated
Banks and Clients conveyancing requirements for their panel are no better or no more complicated than most lenders. It is the case now the CML Handbook, the "bible" used by solicitors to establish lender requirements, is different for each lender. It is not clear if your lawyer is on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel. If they are not, this does add further risk of delay as Banks and Clients will appoint their own solicitors to look after their interest.
Please help. My solicitor is assuring me that he has to order a Local Authority search because the firm are on the Banks and Clients solicitor panel. Do I not have a choice here?
You have limited options available to you. As you are taking a mortgage with Banks and Clients your lawyer has to comply with their conditions as set out in their version of the CML Conveyancing Handbook. Your lawyer would have previously signed the Terms and Conditions of Banks and Clients’s conveyancing panel appointment which obliges them to follow the CML Handbook requirements last updated Banks and Clients. even if you were a cash buyer you would be ill advised not to carry out a local authority search.
How up to date is your search tool for the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel? Do Banks and Clients send you an updated list?
The law firm practices themselves provide us confirmation that they are on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel as opposed to being supplied with a list from Banks and Clients directly.
I was supposed to move into my flat last Friday. My lawyer’s firm is on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel but has changed address in the past couple of months and had not informed Banks and Clients of their new address. Banks and Clients is now refusing to release my funds until such time as their systems are up to date with the correct details.
This is as unusual as it is unlucky. The majority of lender Terms of Conveyancing Panel Appointment specifically oblige the solicitor to inform the lender of an address change. Your solicitor needs to treat this with the utmost urgency. Do speak with or register your concern with the senior partner (assuming he or she is not your direct lawyer). Most lenders would be reasonable in this situation and expedite the resolution of this issue. It may be prudent to enlist the help of your local Banks and Clients branch or your mortgage broker to see if they can assist.
When it comes to lenders such as Banks and Clients do solicitors have to be pay a fee to be on the list of approved solicitors?
We are not aware of any lender fees to be on their panel although some do charge an administration charge to deal with the processing of the conveyancing panel application.
I was thinking of purchasing my friend’s property. Assuming we can agree a figure, what’s the best way to move forward? I hope to get a mortgage with Banks and Clients. Is there anyway to cut out the solicitors to save us both money? My dad reckons back in the day he did a lot of it himself, just went into the land registry office and providing them with the info they needed himself
If you are getting a mortgage with Banks and Clients involved you will need to appoint a solicitor on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel. We would not encourage you to both use the same solicitors' firm. There are clear conflict of interest issues and it's not going to make a huge difference to the speed of the overall process. So as not to hold things us you should pass on your solicitors details to Banks and Clients. Feel free to use our search tool to look for a licensed conveyancer or solicitor on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel.
My offer on house has been accepted, but there is a chain. The vendors have offered on somewhere, but not been accepted yet, and have viewings of other properties in the pipeline. My conveyancing solicitor has been instructed. What do I do now? When should I get the mortgage app going with Banks and Clients?
It is usual to have concerns where there is a chain as you are unlikely to want to be too out of pocket too early (mortgage application is approx £1k, then survey/valuation, conveyancing search costs, etc). First you should check that your solicitor is on the Banks and Clients conveyancing panel. As to the next stages this very much depends on the circumstances of your case, desire for this property and on the state of the market. In a hot mortgage some buyers would pally for the mortgage with Banks and Clients and pay for the valuation and only if it comes back ok would they pay their solicitor to press on with searches.