MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer)
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. In most licensed regimes the role is a regulatory requirement, with personal accountability attached.
A licence application or bank onboarding often stalls when there is no credible named MLRO in place, since the institution needs a real point of accountability to assess. Recruiting a qualified MLRO can add 4-8 weeks to a launch timeline, so treating it as a founding hire rather than an afterthought avoids the delay.
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.
A Suspicious Activity Report is the formal report a regulated firm, through its MLRO, files with the national financial intelligence unit when it suspects a transaction or customer may involve money laundering or other financial crime.
An EMI licence is the authorisation a regulator grants a firm to operate as an Electronic Money Institution: issuing e-money and providing payment accounts and services.
The Financial Conduct Authority is the United Kingdom’s regulator for financial services firms, including EMIs, payment institutions, and many crypto businesses for AML purposes.