Source of Funds has, until recently, largely been thought of as a property compliance task. A conveyancer requesting bank statements. A mortgage lender asking for evidence of a deposit. A cash buyer being asked, at short notice, to prove where the money came from. That framing has always been too narrow. Source of Funds obligations sit at the heart of regulated activity across financial services, wealth management, investment, lending and legal work. Any regulated firm handling money at scale is expected to understand where that money comes from, at the point of transaction and often long after.

Today we are formally launching an expanded version of the SmartSearch Source of Funds product, built specifically for the range of regulated transactions the current regulatory environment is now scrutinising. Alongside the existing property-focused capabilities, the product now supports investment platforms, wealth managers, lenders, financial services firms and any regulated business where a specific transaction requires evidence of where the money has come from.

The core promise is the same. Fragmented evidence collection, repeated customer contact and manual review are replaced with a single, structured, digital journey. What is new is the range of transactions the product now supports and the depth of configuration available to firms across sectors.

What has changed

The updated SOF product introduces two configurable journeys, each designed to match a specific transaction requirement.

The Standard journey verifies the origin and availability of funds for a specific regulated transaction. It combines a dynamic questionnaire, which adapts to the customer's declared source of funds, with Open Banking data sharing and secure document upload. The customer declares where the money has come from, connects the relevant bank accounts, uploads any supporting evidence such as payslips or investment statements, and reviews the completed report before sharing it back to the firm. The journey handles third-party gifts and contributions natively, and captures the amount, origin, accumulation, and availability of the funds in a structured, audit-ready format.

The Refresh journey is a lightweight follow-up check used where firms need to confirm that funds remain available at a later stage, for example before a transaction completes, before drawdown, or before funds are released. It confirms account balances without repeating the questionnaire, giving firms a fast way to verify that circumstances have not changed since the initial check.

For property specifically, additional journeys support residential purchases and gifted deposits, reflecting the specialist requirements of the sector.

Every journey is configurable per firm. Firms only see the journey types relevant to their regulated activities. Banking data periods are selectable (6, 12 or 24 months for Standard, 3 or 4 months for Refresh) to match the origin and accumulation profile of the funds a firm typically deals with. Firm branding can be applied throughout the customer-facing Armalytix journey, so every interaction feels like an extension of the firm rather than a third-party bolt-on.

Powered by Armalytix, endorsed by Legal Eye

The Open Banking layer is provided by Armalytix, an FCA-authorised Account Information Service Provider already trusted by one in five UK residential property purchases. The questionnaire content behind the Standard journey has been reviewed and endorsed by Legal Eye, giving firms additional confidence that the information collected supports their AML compliance obligations. Together, these two partnerships give SmartSearch SOF a foundation of regulated infrastructure and specialist compliance expertise that few standalone verification tools can match.

Why this matters now

The regulatory environment is moving fast. The SRA's updated Sectoral Risk Assessment, published in August 2026, explicitly named source of funds as a central control across multiple high-risk service areas. The Failure to Prevent Fraud offence begins enforcement in 2027, introducing corporate criminal liability for firms that cannot demonstrate they took reasonable steps to prevent fraud. Amendments to the Money Laundering Regulations are expected later this year. Across every regulated sector, the operational bar for what firms need to do at the point of a transaction is rising.

At the same time, consumer expectations are shifting. Recent research from Credas, part of the SmartSearch group, found that 39% of homebuyers cite proof of funds as their single most frustrating compliance task. 96.5% would consider walking away from a firm found in breach of compliance regulations. Firms responding to that dual pressure, of regulatory tightening and consumer expectation, need tools that can move at pace while producing the evidenced audit trail their compliance position depends on.

The SmartSearch platform is seeing that shift in real time. Source of Funds check volumes across the platform have grown tenfold in the first half of 2026 alone.

Available today, across every regulated sector

The updated SmartSearch Source of Funds product is available now. Existing SmartSearch customers can talk to their Customer Success contact about enabling the expanded journeys for their firm. New customers can book a demo with our team to explore how the product would fit into their existing workflow.

For firms operating in regulated markets beyond property, this is Source of Funds redefined. Structured, digital, audit-ready, and built for the transactions that matter most.