PEXA joins Bank of England's Synchronisation Lab to drive property transaction reform

Digital property completions and data insights firm, PEXA, has been selected to take part in the Bank of England’s Synchronisation Lab.

PEXA was selected to demonstrate the use of synchronised settlements within property transactions. As it stands, today’s property completion process is sequential – funds are paid and then the title is lodged with Land Registry some time later. This creates a gap in which lenders and consumers have ‘paid’ the funds but do not have security of ownership or legal charge over the title. Buyers and lenders are exposed to legal, financial and operational risk as a result.

PEXA already has the technology and capabilities to address this issue, making the completion process more secure and certain for all parties. It provides the UK’s only FCA-regulated digital property completion infrastructure that connects the movement of money and lodgement of title in a single secure platform. PEXA will work with the Lab to demonstrate its use case and technology at scale without the need for additional investment within the UK’s banking infrastructure.

The programme offers an opportunity to test how synchronised settlement and title lodgement can improve the security, certainty and transparency of property completions, and support better outcomes for all stakeholders.

The announcement of PEXA’s inclusion in the Lab is the latest in a growing number of industry developments that are supporting the reform and digitisation of the home buying and selling process in the UK. 

HM Land Registry has set out its vision for digitisation, while the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government issued a consultation on home buying and selling reform, which closed in December. 

The Open Property Data Association (OPDA) is developing a property data trust framework and is involved in numerous data-related initiatives and key pilots. Meanwhile, the FCA is currently running an Open Finance tech sprint focused on mortgages, and the Centre for Finance, Innovation & Technology (CFIT) is running an ‘Open Property Coalition’, working with government and industry stakeholders. 

Joe Pepper, UK CEO at PEXA, commented: “To be selected by the Bank of England after a rigorous application process is a huge achievement in itself. It gives us an enormous opportunity to showcase the capabilities of the technology we’ve spent significant time and resource building as a bespoke solution for the UK. We will demonstrate that it is possible to eliminate property settlement risk without the need to build entirely new, duplicate infrastructure. We’re thrilled to be selected, and looking forward to getting started with the support of an expert team.”