FATF Anti Money Laundering Standards Implementation Training Course

Course overview

Banks, insurers and other regulated financial institutions must translate the FATF Recommendations into controls that work at customer, product, channel and transaction level. The challenge is not simply knowing the Recommendations: it is evidencing a risk-based programme that withstands regulatory inspection, addresses beneficial ownership opacity, detects suspicious activity, manages correspondent and intermediary relationships, and applies targeted financial sanctions without creating unmanageable operational friction. Weak implementation can produce inconsistent customer due diligence, poorly documented risk decisions, inadequate escalation and expensive remediation.

This five-day course examines the FATF Recommendations as an implementation method for banking and insurance AML/CFT programmes. Participants map Recommendations to operational control requirements; apply the FATF risk-based approach; develop customer, product and geographic risk assessments; define CDD, enhanced due diligence and beneficial ownership evidence standards; and test transaction-monitoring, suspicious transaction reporting and sanctions-screening workflows. The course also covers governance, independent testing, record keeping, financial intelligence cooperation, correspondent banking and insurance-specific risks involving brokers, high-value policies, claims and early surrender activity.

Teaching combines instructor-led interpretation of the FATF framework with worked supervisory findings, bank and insurer case files, control-design workshops and peer challenge sessions. Participants use a structured FATF implementation matrix to assess a selected business area against relevant Recommendations, identify evidence gaps and assign accountable remediation actions. They leave with a completed implementation pack containing a risk-and-control map, a CDD escalation workflow, a sample monitoring scenario specification and a 90-day improvement plan that can be adapted for their own institution.

The course is designed for experienced compliance, risk, audit and financial-crime professionals who need to improve or review an operational AML/CFT framework rather than receive a basic introduction to money laundering.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Interpret the FATF Recommendations and Methodology as operational requirements for banking and insurance AML/CFT controls
• Construct a risk-based financial-crime risk assessment across customers, products, channels, jurisdictions and delivery partners
• Map customer due diligence requirements to onboarding, periodic review, enhanced due diligence and record-keeping procedures
• Verify beneficial ownership and control structures using documented evidence, escalation criteria and source-of-wealth checks
• Design transaction-monitoring scenarios and alert triage rules linked to identified money-laundering and terrorist-financing risks
• Prepare a suspicious transaction report decision record with clear rationale, supporting intelligence and escalation evidence
• Assess correspondent banking, broker and intermediary relationships against FATF due-diligence and control expectations
• Produce a FATF implementation matrix and 90-day remediation plan for a defined business area

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• AML/CTF Compliance Managers — who own or coordinate enterprise financial-crime control frameworks
• Money Laundering Reporting Officers — who must make defensible suspicious activity reporting and escalation decisions
• Financial Crime Risk Managers — who translate risk assessments into monitoring, CDD and governance requirements
• Internal Auditors — who test AML/CFT design and operating effectiveness against recognised standards
• Banking Operations and Onboarding Managers — who implement customer due diligence and periodic review procedures
• Insurance Compliance and Claims Managers — who oversee distributor, policyholder, claims and surrender-related AML risks

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working knowledge of AML/CFT terminology and experience with at least one financial-crime process, such as customer onboarding, KYC review, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, suspicious activity escalation, compliance assurance or internal audit. Familiarity with risk ratings, legal entities, beneficial ownership and basic banking or insurance products is assumed. Participants should be able to read policy documents and work with spreadsheet-based control matrices. No prior study of the FATF Recommendations, programming capability, specialist analytics platform or law-enforcement experience is required. This is not a beginner course in AML fundamentals.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led briefings to establish each FATF requirement, followed by practical application in bank and insurance case materials. Participants analyse customer files, ownership charts, transaction patterns, broker relationships and control evidence; then work in groups to make risk decisions and defend them against supervisory-style challenge. Workshops use a FATF implementation matrix, risk-assessment templates and escalation records rather than abstract discussion. Each day closes with a documented output, and the final session converts these outputs into a prioritised 90-day implementation plan for the participant’s workplace.

Course outline

Day 1: FATF framework and risk-based implementation

• Purpose, structure and legal status of the 40 FATF Recommendations
• FATF Methodology, Immediate Outcomes and effectiveness assessment
• Risk-based approach under Recommendation 1
• National risk assessment findings and institutional risk appetite
• Enterprise AML/CFT risk assessment design
• Customer, product, channel and geographic risk-factor scoring
• Mapping FATF Recommendations to policies, controls and evidence

Workshop: Participants build a FATF implementation matrix for a retail bank or life insurer, linking selected Recommendations to owners, controls and documentary evidence.

Day 2: Customer due diligence and beneficial ownership

• Customer identification and verification under Recommendation 10
• Risk-based onboarding and customer acceptance criteria
• Beneficial ownership identification and reasonable-measures testing
• Complex ownership structures, trusts and legal arrangements
• Politically exposed persons and enhanced due diligence
• Source of funds and source of wealth investigation methods
• Periodic review, event-driven refresh and CDD record retention

Workshop: Participants review a layered corporate ownership case and produce a CDD decision record, beneficial ownership rationale and enhanced due-diligence escalation plan.

Day 3: Monitoring, reporting and targeted financial sanctions

• Transaction-monitoring risk typologies for banking and insurance
• Scenario design, thresholds and behavioural detection logic
• Alert triage, investigation case management and quality assurance
• Suspicious transaction reporting under Recommendation 20
• Tipping-off controls and protected escalation routes
• Targeted financial sanctions obligations under Recommendations 6 and 7
• Sanctions screening controls for customers, payments, beneficiaries and claims

Workshop: Participants investigate a transaction-alert case and produce an alert disposition, STR decision rationale and monitoring-scenario improvement specification.

Day 4: Higher-risk relationships and sector-specific controls

• Correspondent banking due diligence under Recommendation 13
• Payable-through accounts and nested relationship risk
• Wire transfer transparency under Recommendation 16
• Reliance on third parties and outsourced AML/CFT activities
• Insurance distributors, brokers and delegated authority arrangements
• Life insurance policy, claims, assignment and early-surrender typologies
• New technologies, virtual assets and non-face-to-face business risk

Workshop: Participants assess a correspondent banking or insurance broker relationship and produce a due-diligence checklist, risk rating and control conditions for approval.

Day 5: Governance, assurance and implementation planning

• Board and senior-management accountability for AML/CFT
• Three-lines responsibilities and MLRO reporting structures
• Internal controls, employee screening and training under Recommendation 18
• Independent audit testing and control-effectiveness evidence
• Data quality, management information and regulatory reporting
• Remediation prioritisation using risk, impact, effort and accountability
• Preparing for FATF-style mutual evaluation and supervisory review

Workshop: Participants consolidate their matrices into a 90-day FATF implementation plan with prioritised actions, accountable owners, evidence milestones and governance reporting points.

Tools & standards covered

FATF Recommendations, FATF Methodology for Assessing Technical Compliance and Effectiveness, Wolfsberg Correspondent Banking Due Diligence Questionnaire, Basel Committee Sound Management of Risks Related to Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions