The National Property Transaction Network (NPTN), an open and secure digital platform developed by legal tech company LMS, has welcomed 15 major lenders to the initiative, which aims to digitise and modernise UK property transactions.
Gen H, HSBC UK Bank Plc, LiveMore, Lloyds Banking Group, Loughborough Building Society, Melton Building Society, Molo, NatWest Group, Newcastle Building Society, Skipton Building Society and TSB will all contribute to the network, which connects conveyancers, suppliers, agents and lenders throughout the property transaction process.
Earlier this year, a pilot that tested how cross-industry collaboration and the real-time exchange of data could eliminate inefficiencies and speed up property transactions achieved a 35% reduction in completion times and a 43% drop in cancellations.
Following the pilot’s success, LMS has launched the NPTN Sandbox – a secure, controlled innovation environment to test and refine digital solutions. The Sandbox offers participants a non-live environment with a six-week cycle in which to simulate real-world scenarios and capture feedback before launching to a live audience.
The inaugural project, launching in July, will focus on digital ID verification and deed execution, with the aim of encouraging law firms, lenders and HM Land Registry to adopt the use of Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) enabled deeds and improve the customer experience and transaction times.
Delivered in partnership with digital verification platform Verify365 and broker application platform OMS, the collaboration will enable a single, reusable digital ID verification across all parties involved in a transaction, eliminate physical witness requirements by implementing QES, and remove manual, postal workflows to reduce delays and improve efficiency.
Nick Chadbourne, CEO at LMS, explained:
“The NPTN Sandbox is a step forward in our mission to modernise the UK property market. By focusing our first innovation cycle on digital ID verification and Qualified Electronic Signatures, we’re addressing some of the most persistent friction points in the transaction process.
“A single, reusable ID and QES-enabled deeds can eliminate paper-based delays, reduce fraud risk, and significantly speed up completion times. This isn’t just about digitisation, it’s about building trust, resilience, and interoperability across the sector.”
The lenders will play ‘a pivotal role’, LMS said, helping to shape the use case for applying reusable digital ID and QES to mortgage deeds. The company added:
“Their involvement spans technical input, product design and policy alignment, ensuring any solution developed is both scalable and operationally viable. Through a series of co-creation workshops and ongoing feedback loops, lenders are directly influencing how this capability could support long term process change across the home buying and selling market.”
The success of NPTN, LMS added, ‘hinges on the intelligent use of structured, reusable data’, with verified ID safely used across multiple touchpoints, securely automated deed execution, and uniform data standards.
LMS is keen to hear from industry professionals who would like to participate in future use cases – email nptn_sandbox@lms.com for more information.
