Financial institutions lose more to poor detection than to the schemes themselves — a suspicious transaction that goes unnoticed costs far more than the controls needed to catch it. This certificate training course, delivered by the Arab British Fellowship Training Academy, equips participants to recognise money-laundering risk early and respond to it through structured, regulation-aligned controls.

The course works through customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, transaction monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting, alongside the sanctions screening and governance structures that hold an AML programme together. It also looks at the compliance function itself — who is responsible for what, how reporting lines work, and how institutions cooperate with regulators. Participants finish with a risk-based, practical understanding of how to build and sustain effective AML controls inside a financial or regulated organisation.

Who Should Attend?

• Compliance officers, AML specialists, and financial crime professionals.
• Bankers, financial services staff, and risk management officers.
• Legal, audit, governance, and internal control professionals.
• Managers responsible for regulatory compliance and financial crime prevention.

What You Will Be Able to Do

• Explain the regulatory foundations and core principles of anti-money laundering.
• Recognise money-laundering methods, warning signs, and emerging threats.
• Apply customer due diligence and risk-based approaches in practice.
• Assess transactions and customer behaviour for signs of suspicious activity.
• Strengthen AML controls, reporting procedures, and compliance governance.

Module 1: Understanding Money Laundering and Financial Crime

• Core concepts, stages, and methods of money laundering, and the illicit funds behind them.
• How money laundering links to fraud, corruption, and wider financial crime.
• Core principles that underpin an effective AML programme.

Module 2: International Standards and Regulatory Responsibilities

• International standards and bodies that shape AML compliance frameworks.
• Applying international requirements within national regulatory frameworks.
• Responsibilities of regulators, financial institutions, and compliance functions, and the consequences of AML failures.

Module 3: Customer Due Diligence, KYC, and Beneficial Ownership

• Customer identification, verification, and Know-Your-Customer procedures.
• Ongoing due diligence and keeping customer information current.
• Identifying beneficial owners and assessing risk in complex ownership structures.

Module 4: Enhanced Due Diligence and Risk Assessment

• Applying enhanced due diligence to high-risk customers, products, and jurisdictions.
• Building customer, geographic, product, and channel risk profiles.
• Risk classification and the risk-based approach to compliance.

Module 5: Transaction Monitoring and Red Flags

• Principles, systems, and alert thresholds used in transaction monitoring.
• Recognising red flags and unusual account or transaction behaviour.
• Escalating patterns that need further review and investigation.

Module 6: Suspicious Activity Reporting and Record Keeping

• Identifying and documenting reportable suspicious activity.
• Reporting channels, confidentiality, and regulatory requirements for suspicious transaction reports.
• Record retention, information security, and access controls.

Module 7: Building and Testing an AML Compliance Programme

• Core components of an AML compliance framework — policies, procedures, and organisational roles.
• Internal controls for preventing and detecting financial crime.
• Independent testing, compliance reviews, and addressing control weaknesses.

Module 8: Sanctions, Cross-Border Risk, and Emerging Threats

• Financial sanctions, screening, and managing sanctions-related risk.
• Risks tied to cross-border transactions and jurisdictional differences.
• Emerging risks from digital finance, cryptocurrencies, and new typologies.

Module 9: AML Governance and Management Accountability

• Senior management's responsibility for AML oversight.
• Governance structures, accountability, and management reporting.
• Building a culture of compliance across the organisation.

Module 10: Reviewing Programme Effectiveness and Professional Practice

• Measuring the effectiveness of AML policies and controls.
• Reviewing frameworks in response to changing risks and regulation.
• Maintaining professional standards and staying current with regulatory change.