Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Business Risk Assessment

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Every firm that handles money has to know where it could be used to launder it. The business-wide money laundering risk assessment is where that knowledge is written down, tested and approved, and it is the first document a supervisor asks for. This course shows you how to build one that stands up to that scrutiny.

You follow Halbury Group, a fictional financial group with a bank, a payments and e-money firm, an investment firm and a crypto-asset business. Its supervisor wants a group-wide risk assessment in 60 days, and the one on file is out of date. Short case scenes open the lectures: a merchant whose numbers do not fit, instant crypto purchases, business heads who say everything is low risk, a heat map where every score is medium, and a board risk committee that will not accept the result as it is.

What you will learn

• The categories of money laundering risk: customers, products and services, transactions, geography and delivery channels.
• Rating likelihood and impact, separating inherent from residual risk, judging how effective your controls really are, and comparing the result with your risk appetite.
• The steps of a business risk assessment, from gathering data to board approval.
• The vulnerabilities of cash-intensive businesses, banking, payments and e-money, crypto-asset services, corporate service providers, high-value goods, professional services, gambling, free-trade zones and investment migration programmes.
• What has recently changed in the rules (proportionality, beneficial ownership, payment transparency and supervision) and what it means for your assessment.
• The mistakes supervisors find most often, and how to avoid them.

What you get

• A risk assessment workbook in Excel with scales, a residual-risk matrix, automatic ratings and quality checks, pre-filled with a worked Halbury example.
• A data request checklist, a one-page board summary template and a quality self-check in Word.
• A course companion (PDF) with the key ideas of every lecture, short quizzes in each section and a final test.
• Links to the international standards and guidance the course is built on.

Who it is for

MLROs and compliance officers, risk and internal audit professionals, managers and board members in banks, payment and e-money firms, investment firms and crypto-asset service providers, and anyone preparing for a career in AML. The course follows the international standard (FATF) and uses national rules only as examples, so it works wherever you are.

About the instructor

Vlad Karols has many years of experience in compliance and internal audit in regulated financial firms and in public service. He is a Certified Internal Auditor and holds the ICA International Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering.

Some of the lectures use an AI voice made from my own voice, the promo video is presented by an AI avatar of me, made from my own image and voice, and the Halbury characters are fictional and AI-generated.