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18 May 2010

An affordable compliance solution addressing HM Treasury’s Sanctions List requirements Professional Office Ltd. the provider of virtual secretaries, personal assistants and other office services has today (18 May 2010) launched www.SanctionsSearch.com Having recognised a distinct gap in the market place, with the majority of IFA and Mortgage Adviser firms currently being at risk due to non-compliance, Professional Office has spent 6 months developing SanctionsSearch.com which allows members to search the HM Treasury’s sanctions list, but importantly, it also provides a robust audit trail. The firm accepts that www.SanctionsSearch.com is not a unique solution in this market place, but with affordability for small as well as large firms in mind, there is vast differentiation and saving in terms of cost to users. Aiming for volume users, the much needed solution has been made highly affordable at £20 per annum which includes one hundred free search credits. Further credits can be purchased, if required, for £10 per hundred. Pricing strategy was determined to ensure affordability by both small and large firms and even prior to official launch, take up, as anticipated, has already been extremely buoyant. Lucy Clare of Professional Office Ltd. commented: “Like many companies we work with, we know we need to comply with legislation but cost always seems to be an issue. So, what we tried to do with SanctionsSearch.com is produce an affordable solution for any size of company. We understand the need to ensure that the efforts of terrorists are hampered and we do not become innocent parties unwittingly used to facilitate the movement of the proceeds of crime." Lucy went on to say: “After reading up on the legislation, we were surprised to find that this applied to us, in that it affects any company trading in the UK . It is only a matter of time before someone falls foul of the law and is prosecuted, so we wanted to make sure that everyone has access to a simple, cost effective way of complying. On researching the matter, most people we talked to, seemed as we were, to be completely unaware that not only must they ensure their clients are not on the HM Treasury’s sanctions list - both now and on an ongoing basis - but that they must also provide an audit trail to evidence this fact. Even those who were aware of their need to comply, thought that a simple check of the actual HM Treasury's Sanctions List might suffice but even then, many still had concerns about how to provide the audit trail. Hence, in developing www.SanctionsSearch.com we were keen to cover all bases, which included the provision of such an audit trail. In addition, www.SanctionsSearch.com carries out ongoing screening against updates made to the Sanctions List by HM Treasury i.e. when names are added / deleted, no manual activity whatever by subscribers is needed. These additional checks are entirely free of charge, making the proposition even more compelling. Members simply pay the above charges and no more - so this represents real value for money." For more information, please visit our website www.SanctionsSearch.com or call Professional Office on 0845 6526767

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