By Lars Mucklejohn
Companies House has launched an “urgent review” after the government-owned corporate register saw one account file 800 “erroneous” forms on 190 companies, raising fears over a sophisticated fraud targeted at banks.
Banking trade body UK Finance last week issued an “urgent” notice to its members, seen by City A.M., regarding hundreds of “erroneous” filings made at Companies House towards the end of last month.
The warning concerned roughly 800 forms on 190 companies related to the discharging of financial liabilities that were not submitted by the relevant financial firm or its client business.
City A.M. understands that all the filings were registered on 20 February from the same account.
Organisations affected are understood to include the Bank of Scotland, supermarket Sainsbury’s, asset manager Macquarie and estate agent Knight Frank. At least one of the forms named the Bank of England as a security trustee.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by any of the affected groups.
Sky News, which first reported UK Finance’s warning on Sunday, said unnamed industry sources had suggested the possibility of an attempted fraud or hacking of the Companies House register.
The Financial Times reported on Monday that the filings appeared to show property owned by borrowers had been released from charges that entitled the lender to take possession of the asset if the company failed to repay.
“Companies House have emphasised that an incorrect entry in the register – saying a charge has been satisfied – does not invalidate or cancel that charge,” UK Finance said in a note to members on Friday.
“However, there will likely be other consequences for lenders that will need to be resolved.”
Companies House has been investigating the matter since last week. A spokesperson told City A.M. on Monday that it had identified the relevant “transactions”.
“We have taken steps to block the account that is linked with these transactions and, using new powers available to us, will remove the related filings,” they added.
“We are contacting the companies concerned and have launched an urgent review of our processes. We continue to work with law enforcement partners where appropriate.”
Companies House this week gained new powers to clamp down on scammers stealing UK names and addresses by removing factually incorrect information.
Changes to its fees will also mean that from 1 May companies must pay at least £50 to register in the UK.
