Programme overview
Technical depth: Practitioner · Practical mode: Case study
Introduction
Financial crime controls fail quietly: a beneficial owner is never verified, a monitoring scenario generates thousands of alerts that hide the few that matter, or a sanctions match is cleared without evidence. Each gap exposes the institution to penalties, correspondent relationship losses and reputational damage. This Core Concept course equips compliance professionals to run a risk-based AML/CFT programme against international standards, from enterprise-wide risk assessment through due diligence, monitoring, screening and reporting. Participants apply each control to case material and leave with an AML/CFT Programme Improvement Plan for their own institution.
Course Objectives
- Assess money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing exposure through an enterprise-wide risk assessment
- Apply the FATF Recommendations, Basel Committee guidance and Wolfsberg standards to the design of an AML/CFT compliance programme
- Conduct risk-based customer due diligence, including beneficial ownership verification and enhanced due diligence for higher-risk relationships
- Evaluate monitoring alerts and sanctions screening matches and escalate genuine suspicion through well-evidenced reports
- Test the effectiveness of monitoring scenarios and programme controls and address emerging risks such as trade-based laundering and virtual assets
- Produce an AML/CFT Programme Improvement Plan ready for review by senior management
Target Audience
- AML and compliance officers who operate customer due diligence and monitoring controls
- KYC, onboarding and client due diligence analysts in banks and other financial institutions
- Financial crime investigators who review alerts and prepare suspicious transaction reports
- Sanctions screening and payments compliance specialists
- Compliance staff in designated non-financial businesses such as real estate, precious metals and professional services
- Internal auditors and control testers covering financial crime controls
Course Outline
Day 1: The Financial Crime Landscape and Risk Exposure
- Money Laundering Stages: Placement, Layering and Integration
- Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financing Typologies
- FATF Recommendations and the Risk-Based Approach Under Recommendation 1
- FATF Assessment Methodology: Technical Compliance and Effectiveness Outcomes
- Enterprise-Wide ML/TF Risk Assessment: Customer, Product, Channel and Geography Factors
Day 2: International Standards and Programme Architecture
- Basel Committee Guidelines on Sound Management of ML/TF Risks
- Wolfsberg Group Principles and the Correspondent Banking Due Diligence Questionnaire
- FATF Beneficial Ownership Guidance Under Recommendations 24 and 25
- FATF Recommendation 16 Payment Transparency Changes (2025)
- ISO 37301:2021 Compliance Management System Applied to AML/CFT
Day 3: Customer Due Diligence, Monitoring and Screening
- Customer Risk Rating Model and Onboarding Due Diligence Tiers
- Enhanced Due Diligence for Politically Exposed Persons and High-Risk Customers
- Transaction Monitoring Scenarios, Thresholds and Alert Handling
- Sanctions Screening Against the UN Consolidated List Using Wolfsberg Screening Guidance
- Suspicious Transaction Report Drafting and Filing Quality
Day 4: Advanced Risks, Controls and Programme Testing
- Trade-Based Money Laundering Red Flags and Document Review
- Virtual Asset and Fintech Channel Risks Under FATF Recommendation 15
- Monitoring Model Tuning: Above-the-Line and Below-the-Line Testing
- Independent AML Programme Testing and Control Effectiveness Review
- Tipping-Off, Record Keeping and Data Protection Conflicts
Day 5: Case Work and the Programme Improvement Plan
- Correspondent Banking Case Study: Nested Accounts and Beneficial Ownership Gaps
- Trade Finance Case Study: Over-Invoicing Alert Investigation
- Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment Update for an Own Institution
- AML/CFT Programme Improvement Plan Drafting
- Peer Challenge Panel and Plan Defence
Skills You Will Gain
- ML/TF Risk Assessment
- Customer Due Diligence
- Beneficial Ownership Analysis
- Transaction Monitoring
- Sanctions Screening
- Suspicious Activity Reporting
- AML Programme Testing
- Financial Crime Typology Recognition
Why Attend This Course
- Return to work with an AML/CFT Programme Improvement Plan and an updated enterprise-wide risk assessment, tested against peer challenge
- Distinguish a genuine red flag from background noise when reviewing alerts and screening matches
- Explain to business lines why a customer, product or payment needs more scrutiny, in terms they accept
- Compare financial crime controls with practitioners from institutions and countries with different risk profiles
Conclusion
An effective AML/CFT programme is judged by what it detects and stops, not by the volume of policies it holds. This course moves from money laundering and terrorist financing typologies and the enterprise-wide risk assessment, through the international standards that shape programme design, to due diligence, monitoring, screening, reporting and the testing that proves controls work. The final day turns that material into an AML/CFT Programme Improvement Plan that participants take back to their institution, with clear priorities for closing the gaps that matter most.