🏦 Part of our Banking & Financial Services Industry Training Series — browse all related courses →
About This Course
Financial crime poses an existential threat to institutions across every sector. Money laundering and the financing of terrorism undermine market integrity, erode public trust, and expose organisations to severe legal, reputational, and financial consequences. Regulators worldwide are intensifying scrutiny, expanding the scope of obligated entities, and raising penalties for non-compliance — making advanced AML and CFT competence a strategic necessity, not merely a regulatory checkbox.
This five-day advanced training programme by TrainingComplex is designed for professionals who already hold a foundational understanding of AML and CFT concepts and are ready to operate at a higher level of technical and strategic proficiency. The course examines the full architecture of a modern compliance programme — from the FATF Forty Recommendations and regional regulatory frameworks to customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, suspicious transaction reporting, and sanctions screening — grounding every topic in real-world typologies and enforcement cases.
Participants will critically analyse how money laundering schemes evolve, how terrorist financing networks operate, and how compliance functions can stay ahead of emerging threats including virtual assets, trade-based money laundering, and professional money laundering networks. The programme also addresses governance obligations, the role of the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO), and how to build a culture of compliance that is both effective and proportionate.
Upon completing the programme, delegates will return to their organisations equipped to strengthen AML/CFT frameworks, lead internal assessments, engage confidently with regulators, and make sound risk-based decisions — contributing directly to institutional resilience and regulatory standing.
Who Should Attend
- Compliance Officers and AML Analysts
- Money Laundering Reporting Officers (MLROs) and Deputy MLROs
- Risk Management and Internal Audit Professionals
- Bank Examiners and Financial Intelligence Unit Staff
- Legal Counsel and Corporate Governance Officers
- Financial Crime Investigation Specialists
- Regulatory Affairs and Policy Officers
- Senior Managers with compliance oversight responsibilities
Learning Objectives
- Interpret and apply the FATF Recommendations, regional AML/CFT directives, and national regulatory frameworks relevant to the participant's jurisdiction
- Conduct and document risk-based customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence, and ongoing monitoring procedures
- Identify and analyse emerging money laundering typologies including trade-based money laundering, virtual asset abuse, and professional money laundering networks
- Design and evaluate transaction monitoring systems and alert investigation workflows
- Prepare high-quality Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) and manage disclosures to Financial Intelligence Units effectively
- Develop and implement a risk-based AML/CFT compliance programme proportionate to an institution's risk profile
- Apply sanctions screening controls and manage complex politically exposed persons (PEPs) and adverse media risks
- Lead internal AML/CFT audits, gap assessments, and regulatory examination readiness reviews
- Advise senior management and boards on AML/CFT governance obligations and programme effectiveness
- Integrate emerging regulatory expectations — including FinTech oversight, digital assets, and beneficial ownership transparency — into compliance operations
Course Modules
Module 1: The Global AML/CFT Regulatory Architecture
- The FATF Forty Recommendations and Nine Special Recommendations: scope, obligations, and the mutual evaluation process
- Regional bodies and frameworks: ESAAMLG, GIABA, MENAFATF, GABAC, and their national implementation role
- The Basel AML Index, Egmont Group, and the role of Financial Intelligence Units in the global system
- Key international conventions: Vienna, Palermo, Merida, and the UN Security Council resolutions on terrorist financing
- The consequences of FATF grey-listing and blacklisting: sovereign reputational damage, correspondent banking withdrawal, and remediation pathways
- National risk assessments and action plans: how jurisdictions translate FATF mutual evaluation findings into legislative reform and supervisory prioritisation
Module 2: Understanding Money Laundering: Mechanisms and Typologies
- The three-stage model revisited: placement, layering, and integration in contemporary schemes
- Corporate vehicle abuse: shell companies, nominees, trusts, and complex ownership structures
- Trade-based money laundering: over- and under-invoicing, phantom shipments, and multiple invoicing schemes
- Professional money laundering networks: the role of lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, and trust service providers
- Digital and virtual asset laundering: mixing services, chain-hopping, peer-to-peer platforms, and the exploitation of decentralised finance protocols
- Cash-intensive business infiltration: structuring, smurfing, and the use of retail, hospitality, and entertainment sectors as integration vehicles
Module 3: Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Finance
- Sources of terrorist financing: legitimate income streams, charities, hawala networks, and self-financing
- Distinguishing terrorist financing from money laundering: key typological differences and detection implications
- Proliferation finance: sanctions evasion by state and non-state actors and the red flags for financial institutions
- Targeted financial sanctions: implementation obligations, UN lists, and the challenge of real-time compliance
- Financing of foreign terrorist fighters: cross-border fund transfers, prepaid instruments, and the intelligence-financial sector information gap
- Emerging terrorist financing typologies: crowdfunding platforms, encrypted messaging payment systems, and the use of virtual assets by designated groups
Module 4: Risk-Based Approach and Institutional Risk Assessment
- The risk-based approach in FATF standards: principles, expectations, and common regulatory criticisms
- Conducting an institutional Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) risk assessment: methodology and documentation
- Customer risk segmentation: sector, product, channel, and geographic risk factors and how to weight them
- Translating risk assessment outputs into calibrated controls, monitoring intensity, and resource allocation
- Refreshing and validating the institutional risk assessment: triggers for off-cycle review, version control, and board sign-off requirements
- Common supervisory findings in risk assessment reviews: inadequate inherent risk capture, weak residual risk analysis, and failure to reflect emerging typologies
Module 5: Customer Due Diligence and Enhanced Due Diligence
- CDD obligations under international standards: identification, verification, and understanding the business relationship
- Beneficial ownership: regulatory requirements, verification challenges, and use of corporate registry data
- Enhanced due diligence triggers: high-risk customers, PEPs, correspondent banking, and non-face-to-face relationships
- Simplified due diligence: when it is permissible, the risk of over-reliance, and documentation standards
- Reliance on third parties and outsourcing CDD: regulatory conditions, contractual safeguards, and residual accountability of the relying institution
- CDD in practice for legal arrangements and complex structures: identifying settlors, trustees, protectors, and ultimate beneficiaries across multi-layered vehicles
Module 6: Politically Exposed Persons and Adverse Media Screening
- Defining PEPs: domestic, foreign, and international organisation PEPs and the jurisdictional variations in scope
- Risk-based PEP management: source of wealth, source of funds, and senior management approval processes
- Adverse media screening: methodologies, screening tool limitations, and the analyst's role in resolving ambiguous results
- Ongoing monitoring of PEP relationships: trigger events, periodic review cycles, and exit decisions
- Family members and close associates as PEP-linked risk: determining proximity thresholds, applying risk ratings, and managing indirect exposure
- Derisking versus risk management in PEP relationships: regulatory expectations on proportionate engagement and the consequences of blanket refusal policies
Module 7: Transaction Monitoring and Suspicious Activity Detection
- Designing a transaction monitoring programme: rule-based alerts, scenario libraries, and threshold calibration
- Alert management workflows: triage, investigation, escalation, and documentation standards for regulatory review
- Red flag indicators by sector: banking, insurance, securities, real estate, money services businesses, and virtual assets
- Behavioural analytics and machine learning in transaction monitoring: capabilities, limitations, and governance considerations
- Tuning and model validation: back-testing alert scenarios, measuring detection effectiveness, and demonstrating to regulators that thresholds are evidence-based
- Network analytics and entity resolution: identifying hidden relationships between accounts, counterparties, and transaction chains to surface coordinated laundering activity
Module 8: Suspicious Transaction Reporting and FIU Engagement
- Legal obligations to report: the duty to disclose, tipping-off prohibitions, and liability protections for reporters
- Crafting an effective STR: structure, content standards, evidential quality, and common drafting errors
- Internal escalation and the MLRO's decision-making process: documenting the rationale for filing or not filing
- Post-reporting obligations: record retention, law enforcement requests, asset freezing, and managing ongoing relationships
- Quantitative and qualitative STR quality metrics: how FIUs assess report utility, and how institutions can use feedback loops to improve future filings
- Cross-border reporting obligations and information sharing: when a single suspicious transaction triggers disclosure duties in multiple jurisdictions and how to manage conflicts of law
Module 9: Sanctions Compliance and Watchlist Screening
- Sanctions regimes: UN, US OFAC, EU, UK, and African Union measures — scope, extraterritoriality, and secondary sanctions risk
- Screening programme design: name matching algorithms, fuzzy logic, and managing false positive volumes
- Complex ownership and control: applying the 50% rule and navigating indirect sanctions exposure
- Breaches, voluntary disclosures, and managing regulatory investigations following a sanctions compliance failure
- Sanctions due diligence in trade finance and correspondent banking: screening vessels, ports, goods descriptions, and intermediary institutions against sectoral and geographic restrictions
- Keeping pace with dynamic sanctions environments: change management processes for rapid list updates, staff escalation protocols, and the governance of emergency designation responses
Module 10: AML/CFT Governance, Programme Oversight, and Regulatory Examination Readiness
- Governance obligations: the role of the MLRO, the board, senior management, and the three lines of defence
- Building and sustaining an AML/CFT compliance programme: policies, training, independent testing, and record-keeping
- Regulatory examination preparation: assembling evidence packages, managing on-site visits, and responding to findings
- Emerging frontiers in AML/CFT: virtual asset service providers, open banking, beneficial ownership registers, and cross-border data sharing frameworks
- Measuring programme effectiveness: using key risk indicators, audit findings, STR filing rates, and training completion data to demonstrate a culture of compliance to regulators
- Enforcement trends and lessons learned: analysing landmark AML enforcement actions to identify systemic control failures and translate findings into institutional remediation priorities
Requirements & Prerequisites
Participants should have a foundational understanding of Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism principles, either through professional experience or prior training. A minimum of two years of practical experience in compliance, risk management, financial crime, internal audit, or a related regulatory function is strongly recommended. Familiarity with the general requirements of the FATF framework or a national AML regulatory regime will allow participants to engage fully with the advanced content from the outset.
Training Methodology
- Detailed analysis of real enforcement actions and regulatory censures, used to extract lessons applicable to participants' own compliance environments
- Typology workshops in which participants dissect documented money laundering and terrorist financing schemes and map the red flags, detection points, and reporting obligations involved
- STR drafting exercises where participants review transaction scenarios and produce compliant, legally defensible suspicious transaction reports for peer and facilitator critique
- Risk-based compliance programme design sessions, with teams developing or strengthening a framework for a fictional but realistic financial institution
- Regulatory examination simulation, including preparation of compliance documentation packages and a mock regulator interview
- Sanctions screening and PEP case studies requiring participants to apply risk-based judgement to nuanced, ambiguous customer profiles
- Facilitated peer debate on emerging AML/CFT regulatory developments, including virtual assets, beneficial ownership registers, and cross-border information sharing
- Action-planning sessions at the end of each day to help participants translate module content into specific improvements for their own organisations
Organisational Benefits
- Significantly reduced exposure to regulatory penalties, enforcement actions, and reputational damage linked to financial crime failures
- Compliance teams equipped with advanced, practical skills that translate directly into stronger institutional controls
- Improved quality and defensibility of suspicious transaction reports, reducing regulatory friction and supporting law enforcement outcomes
- A more robust risk-based compliance framework that satisfies regulators while remaining operationally proportionate
- Enhanced readiness for regulatory examinations, audits, and FATF mutual evaluations
- Stronger governance structures with clear accountability for AML/CFT oversight at management and board level
- Reduced financial crime losses through earlier detection and more effective prevention measures
- A culture of compliance embedded across business lines, not confined to the compliance department alone
Where Is Advanced AML & CFT: Regulations, Compliance & Crime Prevention Training Offered?
This course runs in-person across: Nairobi, Johannesburg, Kampala, Kigali, Kisumu, Naivasha, Accra, Pretoria, Abuja, Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Zanzibar, Nakuru, Addis Ababa, Dubai, Mombasa, Riyadh, Lagos, Cape Town, plus Live Virtual (online) cohorts. Browse live dates for your city below.
Upcoming Schedules
| Location | Format | Dates | Price |
|---|
| Nairobi, Kenya |
In-Person |
5 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026 |
KES 105,000 |
| Johannesburg, South Africa |
In-Person |
5 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026 |
USD 3,500 |
| Kampala, Uganda |
In-Person |
12 Oct 2026 – 16 Oct 2026 |
USD 1,900 |
| Kigali, Rwanda |
In-Person |
12 Oct 2026 – 16 Oct 2026 |
USD 1,900 |
| Live Virtual |
Online |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
KES 80,000 |
| Kisumu, Kenya |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
KES 120,000 |
| Naivasha, Kenya |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
KES 115,000 |
| Accra, Ghana |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 3,800 |
| Pretoria, South Africa |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 3,300 |
| Abuja, Nigeria |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,800 |
| Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
In-Person |
19 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,300 |
| Live Virtual |
Online |
24 Oct 2026 – 15 Nov 2026 |
KES 80,000 |
| Arusha, Tanzania |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 30 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,100 |
| Zanzibar, Tanzania |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 30 Oct 2026 |
USD 2,500 |
| Nakuru, Kenya |
In-Person |
26 Oct 2026 – 30 Oct 2026 |
KES 120,000 |
+233 more dates — view live schedule →
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this course designed for?
This programme is designed for experienced compliance professionals, risk officers, MLROs, financial crime investigators, internal auditors, and legal counsel who already have foundational AML/CFT knowledge and wish to operate at an advanced technical and strategic level. It is not recommended for participants who have never worked in a compliance or financial crime role.
Will I receive a certificate upon completion?
Yes. Participants who attend all five days and complete the practical assessments will receive a Certificate of Completion in Advanced AML & CFT from TrainingComplex. The certificate documents the competencies covered and can be used to support professional development records and regulatory training logs.
Is this course aligned with FATF standards and international best practice?
Yes. The curriculum is structured around the FATF Forty Recommendations and draws on guidance from the Egmont Group, Basel Committee, and major national regulators including the FCA, FinCEN, and African AML/CFT supervisory bodies. Enforcement case studies are drawn from real regulatory actions to ensure practical, current relevance.
Can my organisation arrange a private, customised version of this course?
Absolutely. TrainingComplex offers in-house delivery of this programme tailored to your institution's sector, jurisdiction, risk profile, and specific regulatory challenges. Contact us to discuss bespoke content, scheduling, and group pricing for teams of five or more participants.
What is the format of the course — is it mostly lectures or interactive?
The course is highly interactive. While expert facilitators provide structured content delivery, a significant portion of each day is devoted to case study analysis, typology workshops, STR drafting exercises, and group problem-solving activities. Participants are expected to engage actively and will leave with practical tools and frameworks directly applicable to their roles.
