NPTN by LMS has joined the Bank of England’s Synchronisation Lab to prove how synchronised settlement can make the remortgage process faster, safer, and more certain for lenders and other stakeholders across the transaction.
Despite progress across financial services, property transactions remain heavily manual, with poor alignment between payment finality, legal completion, and charge registration. For lenders, these timing gaps create settlement risk, operational friction, and avoidable delays to completion. The Synchronisation Lab is exploring how synchronising the movement of money and assets using central bank money could address these challenges at their root.
LMS already operates at the heart of the home buying and selling ecosystem, connecting more than 4,000 law firms and over 45 lenders. Through NPTN, LMS is extending this role beyond any single point solution, bringing together payments infrastructure, digital identity, and legal processes to reduce friction and risk across the entire journey.
Working in eight-week testing cycles, NPTN will test a synchronised remortgage process within the Lab’s simulated RTGS environment. This includes splitting payments into earmark and settle stages via RTGS, while aligning with wider industry processes such as priority search or advance notice and charge registration.
Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS, said:
“We’ve already used the NPTN sandbox to work collaboratively with 15 lenders to test use cases that improve the journey. Through the Synchronisation Lab, we can deepen that collaboration by ensuring synchronisation cuts settlement risk and streamlines completion, giving lenders greater certainty, while also aligning with the requirements of our law firm partners as we explore the future of the home buying and selling process for all key stakeholders.”
The Lab work builds on existing NPTN initiatives, including reusable digital ID and qualified electronic signatures, and Source of Funds via Open Banking, now in testing to replace manual checks still used in over 80% of transactions.
A participating lender commented:
“Synchronised settlement has the potential to materially reduce settlement risk and speed up completion. The Lab gives lenders confidence these improvements can be achieved in practice.”
