CDD on conveyancing under the AMLR: a guide for Irish solicitors

Conveyancing is where most Irish solicitors do the bulk of their client due diligence. Large sums move through your client account, parties can be companies or trusts rather than individuals, and funds often arrive from several sources. If your firm handles property transactions, your CDD procedures are about to change.

From 10 July 2027, Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (the AMLR) applies directly in Ireland. It replaces the substantive AML rulebook your firm has followed under the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010 for over a decade. There is no transposition delay to wait for: as an EU regulation, the AMLR applies on that date without an Irish implementing act. Your supervisor remains the Law Society of Ireland, but the rules it supervises against will be the new EU single rulebook.

This guide walks through what the AMLR means for CDD on conveyancing files, and what your firm can usefully do now.

From designated person to obliged entity

Under the CJA 2010 your firm is a "designated person". The AMLR uses the term "obliged entity". The label matters less than the substance: the AMLR sets harmonised, EU-wide requirements for customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, internal controls and reporting, in place of rules that until now varied by member state.

The practical consequence is that CDD procedures written for the CJA 2010 regime — often a Word document last reviewed years ago — will not automatically satisfy the AMLR on 10 July 2027. The core steps (identify, verify, understand the purpose of the transaction, monitor) are familiar, but thresholds, beneficial-ownership rules and governance expectations all move.

New thresholds that touch property files

Three threshold changes are worth flagging for conveyancing practices:

• Occasional transactions: CDD from 10,000 euro. The threshold for occasional transactions drops from 15,000 euro to 10,000 euro under the AMLR. For most conveyancing work you are already in a business relationship and applying full CDD regardless, but the lower figure matters for one-off instructions and ancillary transactions.
• Occasional cash transactions of 3,000 euro or more trigger limited CDD. Any file where cash appears at this level needs identification and verification steps, even where the matter would otherwise fall below the occasional-transaction threshold.
• An EU-wide cash cap of 10,000 euro applies to commercial transactions, whether as a single payment or linked operations. Directly applicable, no Irish discretion. If a client proposes paying any part of a purchase price, deposit or fees in cash at or above that level, the transaction cannot lawfully proceed in that form.

Splitting a payment into instalments does not help: the cap applies to linked operations. Your file procedures should prompt fee earners and accounts staff to recognise linked cash payments, not just single ones.

Beneficial ownership: the 25 per cent rule and the RBO

Where the vendor or purchaser is a company, you must identify the beneficial owners. The AMLR harmonises the test EU-wide: a beneficial owner is a natural person with an ownership interest of 25 per cent or more, direct or indirect. The European Commission may later set a lower threshold — to 15 per cent or lower — for high-risk sectors by delegated act, following a review due by 2029, so build your procedures to cope with a threshold that could tighten.

Irish practice already layers a register duty on top. Since April 2021, designated persons must obtain an extract from the Register of Beneficial Ownership before entering a new business relationship with a company, and must report discrepancies between the register and what their own CDD finds (Regulation 20(3)(b) of SI 110/2019). Access for firms is Tier 2 (restricted): your firm registers using the BEN3A1 form and pays a small fee per extract.

On a corporate conveyance, a sound file therefore shows four things: the RBO extract, the beneficial-ownership information the client provided, a documented comparison of the two, and — where they diverge — a record of the discrepancy decision and any notification to the Registrar. A missing comparison note is one of the easiest gaps for a supervisor to spot.

Enhanced due diligence and high-net-worth clients

The AMLR introduces enhanced due diligence for high-net-worth relationships: clients with assets of 5 million euro or more handled for a client whose total wealth is 50 million euro or more. AMLA — the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 — is due to issue guidance on the 50-million-euro test by 10 July 2027. Prime residential and commercial property work will bring some clients within these bands, so your risk-assessment procedures should ask the question rather than assume it away.

Source-of-funds work remains central on any higher-risk conveyance. Where funds arrive from multiple accounts, from third parties, or from abroad, your file should show what you asked, what you received and what you concluded.

Governance, reporting and records

Three further AMLR points affect how a conveyancing practice runs its AML function:

• Prescribed roles. The AMLR requires a compliance manager at board (or equivalent management) level plus a compliance officer of sufficiently high standing. From 10 July 2027 the compliance officer is also responsible for implementing targeted financial sanctions. In a small practice one principal may wear both hats, but the designation must be deliberate and documented.
• Reporting. Suspicious Transaction Reports in Ireland are dual-reported: to FIU Ireland via the goAML portal and to the Revenue Commissioners via ROS. That does not change under the AMLR, and Ireland has no threshold transaction reporting regime — there is no routine report for large transactions, only suspicion-based STRs. Note also that FIU requests must be answered within 5 working days under the AMLR, so your file retrieval needs to be fast.
• Records. Retain CDD records for 5 years, then delete them. The deletion half is the new discipline: keeping closed conveyancing files indefinitely stops being a safe default.

What to do now

1. Map your current CDD procedures against the AMLR and note every point where a threshold, definition or role changes.
2. Update precedent CDD checklists for conveyancing files: 10,000 euro occasional-transaction threshold, 3,000 euro occasional-cash trigger, 10,000 euro cash cap including linked payments.
3. Confirm your firm has Tier 2 RBO access (form BEN3A1) and that fee earners record the extract-versus-client comparison on every corporate file.
4. Add a high-net-worth screening question to client intake so the 5 million euro and 50 million euro EDD bands are considered, not missed.
5. Designate — in writing — your compliance manager and compliance officer, and note the officer's sanctions responsibility from 10 July 2027.
6. Check MLRO registrations for goAML and ROS are current, and test how quickly you could produce a file within 5 working days.
7. Refresh your business-wide risk assessment against the AMLR rather than rolling forward last year's version.

How CompliDesk can help

CompliDesk Ireland is being built AMLR-native for Irish designated persons, with CDD workflows, RBO evidence capture and cash-rule warnings designed around Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 rather than retrofitted from the old regime. Start with the AMLR explainer or check whether your firm is in scope.