Kord Launches Dedicated Legal Sort Code to Tackle UK Property Fraud

Financial technology provider Kord has rolled out 04-10-26, the UK's first sort code designed exclusively for the legal sector. The specialised payment network, known as Kord Custody, allows law firms, conveyancers, and estate agents to execute high-value client transactions instantly, any time of day or night.

The new infrastructure decouples legal settlements from traditional banking hours while introducing built-in counterparty verification to fight payment fraud. Access to the network is restricted to regulated firms that have passed Kord's onboarding and compliance checks, ensuring solicitors can confirm account ownership before sending client money.

For years, UK property transactions have relied on general clearing systems that struggle during peak periods. High-value transfers often happen under tight deadlines—especially on Friday afternoons—when limited bank oversight creates operational friction and exposes firms to cybercriminals.

These criminals exploit high-pressure settlement windows by intercepting unverified payment details, a practice known as Friday afternoon fraud. By combining payment execution with pre-transaction verification, Kord Custody enables participating firms to transfer funds instantly on weekends and bank holidays, removing the deadline crunch.

Buying a home or settling a major commercial matter should not depend on whether a bank is open. This launch marks the moment that legal transactions leave banking hours behind. Crucially, it provides enhanced security alongside greater operational efficiency. Fraudsters often exploit uncertainty, but our settlement network embeds trust and verification into each transaction, helping end Friday afternoon fraud.

James Owusu, CEO and founder of Kord, emphasised that the system eliminates the uncertainty fraudsters rely on.

Client funds moving through the 04-10-26 sort code are safeguarded with ClearBank in line with Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requirements. The platform is built to serve estate and letting agents, conveyancers, law firms, and financial institutions, integrating across both traditional clearing rails and modern digital wallets.

Supported payment rails include:

• Domestic Clearing Systems: Full compatibility with Faster Payments, CHAPS, and BACS
• Card and Digital Wallet Rails: Native support for debit and credit card processing, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay

Kord Custody sits alongside the company's existing products—Checkboard for client verification, Kord Data for eligibility, and Kord Pay for secure payments. Together, they provide a complete service offering backed by full audit trails.

Kord Custody sits alongside Kord's existing client verification (Checkboard), eligibility (Kord Data), and secure payments (Kord Pay) propositions, supplying the missing link to law firms to enable high-value transactions, backed up by a full audit. This gives our customers a full service offering which is unique in the market, providing them with the assurance that money is moving safely and securely from one correct account to another.

Steve Carle, Kord board director appointed by Guinness Ventures, noted the platform supplies the missing piece for high-value legal transactions.

Client money sits at the centre of a law firm's risk, and the infrastructure managing it hasn't kept pace with regulation. Kord Custody removes that risk at source rather than insuring against it after the fact, and is the kind of category-defining product we backed Kord to build.

Kiu Kim, investment director at Beringea and Kord board director, highlighted that the platform addresses risk proactively rather than reactively. By combining round-the-clock instant availability with strict counterparty verification, Kord is establishing a purpose-built financial rail designed to protect and accelerate the UK's legal economy.