Supporting an international law firm’s service delivery and growth ambitions with client account payment automation
As a prominent law firm in the private capital space, risking incorrect or delayed client account payments as part of a legal transaction isn’t an option. So, when Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS) wanted to transform manual payment processes to support future growth targets, improve security, and ensure compliance, it had to be confident in its choice of partner.
About Charles Russell Speechlys
Headquartered in London, CRS is an international law firm specialising in private capital at the crossroads of personal, family, and business interests. With offices across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, it delivers a range of legal services to both private individuals and corporate clients.
During its work, CRS handles high volumes of high-value client payments, including those related to commercial and private property transactions, as well as corporate and trust administration matters. Head of Cash Operations, Joe Mardon and his team are responsible for processing these transactions in a correct, timely, and compliant manner.
The Challenge
Eliminating manual processing of client account payments via bank portals
CRS contacted AccessPay to help it automate the client account payment process and enable it to handle growing payment volumes securely. Many law firms have outsourced operations over the last decade, but given the importance of client payments to its service proposition, CRS wanted to manage them in-house.
It had already undertaken significant work to upgrade its practice management system (PMS) from the legacy Elite Enterprise to Elite 3E (3E), which included digitising the client account payment instruction template and creating a new workflow and approval matrix to route authorised payment instructions from the business to finance. Now, it wanted to automate the payment flow from 3E to its bank accounts.
When we upgraded to 3E, we wanted to customise it to help with the volume and value of client transactions that we handle and improve the security of those payments. Previously, the firm used paper instructions for client payments, which were manually added to the PMS and replicated on banking portals. The PMS upgrade eliminated the first manual touch point, but we wanted to go further and remove the need to input payment data to our banking portals.
Payment security was a particular consideration for CRS. Any failures when sending payments on time could have significant ramifications for clients. The firm, therefore, wanted a solution that could help it reduce the risk of fraud and error in managing payments, as well as ensure compliance with its internal cybercrime policy and Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) rules.
The Solution
Bank connectivity for payment automation and increased security
AccessPay’s bank connectivity offering enabled CRS to integrate 3E with its bank accounts via host-to-host connections so that authorised payments could flow from the PMS to the relevant bank account without manual intervention.
The project took six months, with the successful implementation enabling CRS to eliminate the risk of not inputting payment information as approved in 3E into banking portals. The implementation also provided the finance team with more time to review payments.
We must comply with the SRA’s Solicitors Accounts Rules, meaning payments should be directly tied to advice. Now, rather than worrying about data entry, our Cash Operations team can focus on reviewing payments to ensure compliance with the SRA’s rules, as well as our internal cybercrime policy and anti-money laundering requirements.
Enhanced security with account name verification
AccessPay’s account name verification (ANV) has also enabled CRS to improve client verification checks and validation. It uses the ANV service as part of the checks to verify new payee bank accounts, which, if they fit specific criteria, can be added to the library of trusted payees in the PMS.
For domestic payees not in the trusted payee library, the ANV service can verify their bank account details via an API call to the ANV database during the payment request workflow. The result is stamped on the request, which dictates the workflow routing. If, for example, the API returns a ‘No Match’ result, the workflow request is returned to the creator. It cannot be approved.
The ANV checks for domestic payments mean the Cash Operations team can focus more on checking how medium and high-risk payments have been validated, such as those that are cross-border or that are not held in the trusted payee library.
Bank statement automation to save time and reduce fraud risks
CRS has also automated bank statement feeds from its 60+ banks using AccessPay, saving considerable time manually checking for and downloading data and eliminating the risk of statement manipulation.
Previously, finance would download statement data from multiple bank portals and input it into the PMS. Now, the data flows directly into the PMS, which saves considerable time and is more secure. The alerts are particularly useful. These can be configured so that relevant team members receive an alert when funds are deposited or withdrawn, or when the balance hits a certain threshold. This is especially helpful for accounts that are less active, removing the need to log in daily.
It has also further improved the security of the client account payment process, which is a particular focus of the SRA.
“The SRA is paying increasing attention to client money handling processes following a high-profile fraud case where a law firm’s client funds were misappropriated. The case involved bank statement manipulation, but by automating statement feeds, we have removed this risk.”
The Result
Supporting the firm’s growth targets and future compliance needs
In adopting AccessPay, CRS’ Cash Operations team is better placed to manage growing volumes of payments and support the firm’s growth targets.
CRS has publicly stated its ambitious growth targets to 2028, aiming to increase firmwide revenue by 60% compared to the 2023/24 financial year. Cash Operations is well-placed to support this growth and manage higher transaction volumes while maintaining a high level of service.
Payment automation and improved validation processes have also provided significant time-saving benefits, enabling the team to focus on adding value to the firm.
Each client account payment request is now processed with significant time savings when compared to previous processes. By a conservative estimate, CRS has saved over 1,500 hours in the last financial year. We can now focus our efforts on more value-added tasks and reviewing for compliance.
Several time-saving measures will also be added in phase two of implementation.
AccessPay will help us comply with upcoming ISO 20022 requirements by adding the purpose code list to our PMS and integrating the payment instruction form. We are also refining the approvals matrix by enabling straight-through processing of payments where finance does not add value, such as stamp duty payments to HMRC, so that they do not need to come to finance for processing.
Joe and the Cash Operations team are not resting on their laurels and have a long-term vision for how AccessPay can be used to improve payment processes and service delivery further, but it is already feeling the positive impact of payments transformation on the business.
“Through the AccessPay implementation and wider payments transformation, we truly have payment processes that distinguish us from our counterparts.”