Anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) Advisory

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. This inter-governmental body sets international standards aiming to prevent illegal activities and the harm relating to money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF) activities. With more than 200 countries and jurisdictions committed to implementing them, the FATF has developed the FATF Recommendations (currently 40), and FATF Standards, which ensure a coordinated global response (including Hong Kong, Australia and other jurisdictions) to prevent organised crime, corruption and terrorism.

In recent years, reprimands and fines relating to money laundering and terrorist financing continue to be a pressing issue for both local and international institutions. AML/CFT risks are still a major agenda item for board rooms of financial institutions. Prevention should always be a preferred strategy than post event rectification. Regular health checks on AML processes can help the board detect AML deficiency early and provide a proof of the entities’ compliance effort in AML/CFT.

In short, we can help management review the following AML processes:

• Management oversight
• Institutional ML/TF risk assessment
• Customer ML/TF risk assessment model and classification
• Customer due diligence
• Screening
• Transaction monitoring and suspicious transactions reporting (STR)
• Staff training, policies and procedures
• Trade based money laundering advisory