AML Services
AML services help financial and non-financial businesses and professions comply with regulations to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism. This involves a range of procedures and software designed to detect and report illicit financial activities.
Core AML services
- Customer Due Diligence (CDD): Financial institutions must verify their customers’ identities and assess their risk profiles to combat financial crime. This process includes Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to ensure customers are who they claim to be and that their funds are legitimate.
- Transaction monitoring: This involves tracking and analyzing customer transactions to identify suspicious activities that may indicate money laundering. Suspicious patterns can include high-value cash deposits or rapid movement of funds between accounts.
- Sanctions and watchlist screening: Service providers screen customers and third parties against government-mandated sanctions lists, politically exposed persons (PEPs) lists, and adverse media to identify high-risk individuals and entities.
- Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR): When suspicious activity is detected, businesses must file a report with the relevant financial intelligence unit (FIU). Many services offer automated software to streamline this reporting process.
- Risk assessment: Companies offering AML services can help businesses conduct enterprise-wide risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities to money laundering and create a framework to mitigate those risks.
- AML software and technology: Many firms provide AI-driven software to automate and streamline compliance tasks, such as monitoring, screening, and case management. This technology helps to reduce manual effort and false positives.
- Independent audits and training: To ensure compliance, some AML service providers offer independent audits to evaluate a firm’s AML policies and procedures. They also provide training to employees on AML regulations and how to recognize red flags.
- Outsourced compliance function: For companies with limited resources, AML services can include outsourcing the entire compliance function to a team of specialized professionals.
Why AML is important
Money laundering poses significant risks to businesses and the global financial system:
- Legal penalties and fines: Non-compliance can lead to substantial fines and legal action from regulatory bodies.
- Reputational damage: Public scrutiny and loss of customer trust can result from being associated with financial crime.
- Risk mitigation: An effective AML program helps protect businesses from being used to facilitate illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, and terrorism financing.