Source of Funds FAQs

The following article provides guidance on completing your Source of Funds check through Amiqus. 

1. What is a Source of Funds check?
2. How do I know if my bank is supported with "Open Banking"?
3. What is Open Banking?
4. Is Open Banking safe?
5. Why do you want my online banking login details?
6. How do source of funds checks work within Amiqus?
7. Who will have access to the source of funds information?
8. How to complete a Source of Funds check?
9. What if my bank is not supported by 'Open Banking' yet? 
10. I am having issues connecting to my bank. What can I do?
11. Why am I being asked to do this?
12. What banking information do I need to share?

13. What if the check is returning a 'Page not found' error when trying to connect to my bank?

14. Is TrueLayer regulated under the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)?

1. What is a Source of Funds check?

A source of funds check is used to confirm that the origin of funds that are used for a specific transaction come from legitimate sources. This check uses Open Banking technology to allow you to give your legal services provider secure access to certain financial information while providing them with the knowledge that the information you are supplying is up to date, correct and genuine.

2. How do I know if my bank is supported with "Open Banking"?

The following link provides a list of the UK based banking providers that support 'Open Banking' technology via our supplier, TrueLayer. To check if your bank is 'Open Banking' enabled, please click here to visit the TrueLayer website.

Open banking requires a bank account with online or mobile access and the ability to make payments such as personal and business current accounts. It can't be used with savings accounts, investment accounts, restricted payment accounts or accounts for which online access is not available.

As support for Open Banking matures we expect to see banks provide access to their full suite of account types.

3. What is Open Banking?

Open Banking is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and can be used to give a provider access to your financial information.

You can find out more here: https://www.openbanking.org.uk/customers/what-is-open-banking/ 

You may be familiar with this technology from within your online banking application. You may have the option to ‘add other banks’ which allows you to see all of your account balances in one place. Our source of funds check uses the same secure technology.

4. Is Open Banking safe?

Open Banking actually provides more security than other methods of sharing financial information, such as emailing a screenshot of your bank statement.

This is because it’s regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and therefore has to meet the same rigorous standards of banks and other financial institutions. 

This means much stricter authentication and verification is needed and it uses an encrypted end-to-end connection. It also means that you are in complete control of what data is shared and how long it can be accessed. You can revoke it at any time. For more information, please see the video below.

5. Why do you want my online banking login details?

Your login details are not shared with your legal service provider, Amiqus or any other third party.

6. How do source of funds work within Amiqus?

You will be directed to your banking provider where you will be required to login to your online banking. You will then be prompted to allow your legal services provider access to your financial information to verify your account balances, transactions, account ownership, income or affordability.

7. Who will have access to the source of funds information?

Our provider TrueLayer, use secure connections to all partner banks API's. This means that none of your login data is shared with your legal service provider, Amiqus or any other third party, nor is it stored in our systems. Open Banking guarantees that no data is shared without your authorisation and you dictate how long it can be accessed for. You also have the choice of revoking access to the data at any time.  

Open Banking is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and therefore, has to meet the same rigorous standards of banks and other financial institutions. Strict authentication and verification is applied at all stages, through an an encrypted end-to-end connection. For more information on Open Banking, you can visit https://www.openbanking.org.uk/customers/what-is-open-banking/

8. How to complete a Source of Funds check?

If you have been asked to complete an Amiqus request that includes a source of funds check and you are unsure about how to complete it, please follow the written steps below.

1. If you have received an Amiqus request email, please open the email and select' Start request'. If you have already started the request but you had previously exited the system, this button will have changed to' Continue request'. Alternatively, if you have received a unique link, please click on the link. This will open up the Amiqus request.
2. Read the 'Amiqus data subject terms', tick the box and click 'Confirm and continue'.
3. Complete the 'Your details page',ensuring that you select a 'Title' and complete your date of birth. Then confirm that you have read and understood our 'data usage statement' by ticking the box and clicking' Confirm and continue'.
4. Next, search for your address by selecting it from the drop down box underneath 'Address details' or by typing it in manually. You can do this by selecting 'I cannot find my address, let me type it in'. Then complete your 'Contact details'.
5. Depending on whether you have been asked to complete more than one check, you may have to complete other checks first. When you get to the' banking information' stage, you will be given information about the banking information check and what you'll access to when completing the check. Select 'Continue'. 
6. Next, use the magnifier to search for a specific provider. If your banking provider is not available select the option 'I can't find my banking provider', and see What if my bank is not supported by 'Open Banking' yet? 
7. Select 'Connect to provider'.
8. You will then be directed to our provider, Truelayer, to securely retrieve your account data. Click 'Allow' which will direct you to your banking provider to log in. If you are completing this check on your phone, you will be directed to your mobile banking app. Please note, no login data is visible to Amiqus or stored in our system.
9. Follow the instructions on your screen until you are taken back to the Amiqus verification request.
10. You will then be able to see the accounts that you have selected to share via your banking provider in the request. At this point you can add a note to each account for additional context e.g. if you are purchasing a property; "£10,000 from this account will go towards the deposit for my house purchase". 
11. Then select 'Continue'.
12. You will then be asked to review the provider information. Here you can choose to edit information or add another provider.
13. Once you have reviewed all banking information you will then be asked to submit the check by selecting' Submit and continue'. 
     

9. What if my bank is not supported by 'Open Banking' yet?

If your banking provider or account type is not supported yet by Open Banking technology, we have introduced an alternative route that will allow you to manually add a banking provider and account details, including uploading bank statements for the requested period e.g. 1, 3, 6, or 12 months instead, so that you can complete the Source of Funds check. To manually add the information, scroll to the the bottom of the page, select 'I can't find my banking provider'. This will then prompt you to manually enter the account details and any other information required. If any additional accounts you need to add are unsupported, you can manually add another account in the same way by selecting 'Add another account' for a connected banking provider.  

10. I am having issues connecting to my bank. What can I do?

Firstly, check whether our supplier, TrueLayer, supports your banking provider for 'Open Banking' technology (if you have not already done so). You can do this by visiting this link to search for a specific provider. If your banking provider is supported for 'Open Banking' technology, please could you check the following:

• If your access permissions are "disabled" or "blocked", you may be unable to complete the check as the site will not have the permissions enabled to open the required features. You can grant temporary access by "enabling" or "allowing" access when prompted or through your permission settings on your device.
• Make sure you have a strong internet connection. If you are using a mobile device, it would be advisory to close any open apps that may be using your internet connection. Additionally, if you have multiple tabs open within your internet browser, we would advise to close any that you are not using, as this can cause the browser to take longer to display any new pages.
• Temporarily disable any; VPN, ad blockers or Javascript blockers.
• Check that your browser is it up-to-date and proceed to run any updates (if required). Ensure that you are completing this check using a 'standard' browser. This will not work when using a "private" or “incognito” browser, as private browsing causes redirection errors between Amiqus and your banking provider.
• Alternatively, you could try using a different browser such as Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox etc.
• If feasible, could you attempt the check using an alternative device? (i.e. Laptop, Desktop Computer, Mobile etc)

11. Why am I being asked to do this?

In order to meet anti-money laundering regulations, your legal services provider is required to verify certain personal and financial information. Using the source of funds check to verify your account balances, transactions, account ownership, income or affordability is the most secure and convenient way to do this.
 

12. What Banking Information do I need to share?

The information you share will depend on what the organisation has requested from you. You will provide only the same information as you would if you were emailing or posting bank statements.

13. What if the check is returning a 'Page not found' error when trying to connect to my bank?

If you have opened your Amiqus request within a mail application (i.e. Apple Mail for iPhone app etc), the issue may be occurring due to an "embedded browser". Embedded browsers are built-in browsers which allow you to access websites through mail applications. Unfortunately, these can cause loading difficulties / redirection issues with some websites. Therefore, we would recommend that you access the request, trying one of the alternative solutions below:

Launching through an email app:

1. Open the Amiqus request email within your mail application (i.e. Microsoft Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail etc.)
2. Locate the green “Start Request” link, ‘long press’ the link to launch a new menu within your application.
3. From the new menu, select “Open Link”.
4. A new link will open within an authentic browser (i.e. Safari, Chrome, Microsoft Edge etc) depending on your device settings.
5. This should now allow you to complete the request.

Launching directly through an internet browser:

1. Open your internet browser (i.e. Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge etc)
2. Search for your email provider and open the relevant website (e.g. https://mail.google.com, https://outlook.live.com)
3. Sign in to your email account and open the Amiqus request from your inbox.
4. Select the green “Start Request” link.
5. This should now allow you to complete the request.

For more information on Embedded Browser restrictions, please visit our Amiqus support article.

14. Is TrueLayer regulated under the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)?

TrueLayer is regulated as an Authorised Payment Institution with permission to provide Account information services (AIS) and payment initiation services (PIS) (Reference number 901096). Further info about TrueLayer and Regulations & Compliance can be found here.