AML (Anti-Money Laundering)
Anti-Money Laundering is the framework of laws, controls, and monitoring a regulated firm must run to detect and prevent the movement of illicit funds. It covers customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and reporting suspicious activity to a national financial intelligence unit.
A bank that judges your AML programme inadequate will decline or offboard regardless of how clean your transactions are, and building a compliant framework after a refusal typically adds 2-3 months before you can reapply. High-risk sectors are assessed on AML maturity first, commercial fit second.
Know Your Customer is the process of verifying the identity of an individual customer: their name, address, date of birth, and identity documents, before and during a business relationship.
Customer Due Diligence is the baseline set of checks a regulated firm performs on every customer: verifying identity, understanding the purpose of the relationship, and assessing the risk they present.
A Money Laundering Reporting Officer is the named individual a regulated firm appoints to oversee its AML programme and file suspicious activity reports with the national financial intelligence unit.
Sanctions screening is the checking of customers, counterparties, and transactions against government and international sanctions lists, such as those maintained by the UN, EU, OFAC, and the UK.