Shieldpay powers UK’s first digital real estate transaction
The transaction was supported by Barclays UK
Shieldpay’s digital escrow facility has been utilised by My Home Move’s law firm subsidiary, Premier Property Lawyers, to power the UK’s first digital real estate transaction.
The transaction was supported by Barclays UK and,the Council for Licensed Conveyancers (CLC, the specialist property law regulator).
Shieldpay’s platform aims to transform house moving process, by providing full transparency on funds to all parties involved and acting as the centralised account for all transaction funds, thus reducing costs overall and providing additional fraud protection.
Shieldpay reports that during the transaction, its platform validated all parties and kept parties updated in each step of the process, allowing the distribution of completion funds to seller, estate agent fees and solicitor fees in real time.
This way, the platform provides certainty over the date of completion and, critically, the time when they can move into their new home.
The company is looking into applying similar tech to the M&A market, car sales, power classifieds sites and e-commerce marketplaces.
John Stecher, CEO at Barclays, says: “Shieldpay has improved the efficiency of digital payments in a truly innovative way. The team has put a huge amount of effort into creating a ‘bank-grade’ payments platform that will change the way that people buy and sell valuable goods and services. They are definitely one to watch in the UK fintech industry.”
Peter Janes, founder and CEO of Shieldpay, comments: “We only have to look at the size of the mortgage market in the UK (£245 billion), and the wider EU and US ($1.24 trillion), to understand the benefits for enterprises and consumers of a completely digital payments process.”
CLC and the Solicitors Regulation Authority have expressed the market’s need for digital transformation through innovations, Shieldpay adds.
“We can see the immediate benefits that the solution brings,” states Doug Crawford, CEO of My Home Move. “Clients waiting with the removal van in the afternoon for money to reach the lawyers could soon be a thing of the past.”
Shieldpay was selected by Mastercard as part of its Start Path programme.
