Risk reduction is top of mind in any global transaction. That’s why so many companies turn to CLF for Escrow Services. Our global team of experts will help you develop an escrow transaction structure that will work for you. We act as an independent party to the transaction, holding assets in escrow and disbursing them quickly and securely according to the terms of the agreement.

 

All that you need to know about the transactions with escrow services. The history of escrow, step-by-step guidelines for the contracting parties, pros and cons of the escrow mediation/interference.

Escrow Account

The escrow account is a special kind of account (according to the English tradition and law), that is used for depositing the material or immaterial funds in the transaction between two parties to secure its closing.


The subject of depositing can be the sales price for the sales-purchase agreement, financial instruments like shares, bonds, debt notes, intellectual property rights, documents, cryptocurrency, software, data etc.

The deposit remains in the escrow account  till the occurrence of some event or till the fulfilment of the obligations of the escrow account by the parties to it.

 

In the international legal practice escrow services are wide spread and are offered by natural and legal persons, banks, financial intermediaries and other authorized subjects depending on jurisdiction.

Transactions by means of escrow accounts are popular in the purchase of real estate, trading with goods and services, shipments of raw materials in huge volumes and other transaction, where an independent party is required for the safekeeping of the funds.

The third party assigned as an escrow agent must be neutral towards the agreement, making it neither a buyer nor a seller in the transaction. 

 

Parties of Escrow Agreement                  

 

 

There are usually several parties involved in the escrow transaction: 

 

 

1.   The Beneficiary

who receives the escrow funds when the escrow agreement conditions are met

 

 

 2.  The Contributor \ Depository

who transfer the escrow funds to the escrow account

 

 

3.  The Escrow agent

who controls when the conditions specified in a contract are met. The escrow agent distributes the escrow funds according to the escrow agreement.

 

 

                                      

 

The procedure and drafting of escrow agreement

 

After we receive a request for escrow services from one party, we ask for the detailed information about the planned transaction. If the nature of the transaction is okay,  we will ask to provide the documents of the parties for the identification (KYC), compliance and conflict of interest checkup.

Step 1

 

If there is no conflict of interest and compliance department does not report anything suspicious, we will issue a draft escrow agreement and after is agreed and signed by all parties involved, an invoice for prepayment will be issued for payment and after receiving the payment, we will initiate the procedure.

 

 

Step 2

 

Contributor deposits the agreed escrow funds to the escrow account provided, which will be released upon the fulfilment of the obligations according to the escrow agreement by the beneficiary.

 

Some of the examples of the action required from beneficiary for the dissolution of the escrow funds are transfer of ownership rights on the real estate, securities, goods shipment, software, cryptocurrency etc.

 

In case of the documents escrow, the documents are usually transferred to the beneficiary after the payment. For example, the documents of legal entity will be sent to the Escrow Agent, and after the payment and occurrence of the described in the escrow agreements events, the documents will be transferred to the beneficiary.

Step 3

 

After the detailed checking of the fulfilment of all the conditions in the escrow agreement and upon receipt of the necessary confirmations, we will complete all necessary payments and transfers of escrowed funds to the parties.

 

Escrow agreement: requirements

There is no specific requirement to the escrow agreement usually. It has to contain the information about the parties, subject of the agreement, obligations of the parties, descriptions of the escrow fund, escrow period, conditions for dissolution of escrowed funds.

We have  Professional indemnity  insurance covers of  50'000'000 GBP. for the cost of  compensating clients for loss or damage resulting from negligent services or advice provided. We guarantee a deep analysis and understanding of our client's goals, a quick response to their requests; we could also offer fixed fees, based on our knowledge and experience with similar projects.