AML Scenario Gap Finder

Bribery and corruption proceeds

Which scenario reads payments that look like bribes or kickbacks: consultants in higher-risk countries, round success fees, officials and their relatives?

A scenario that places here

example

"Corruption: consultancy fees paid to accounts in high-risk countries"

Read this scenario

Channels it applies to

2 of the 20 in the dictionary

WDM WIN

Domestic wires and international wires: one sector each on the coverage chart, hatched where no scenario reaches it.

Obligations

3 regimes
RegimeObligation
Bank Secrecy Act and its regulations (31 CFR Chapter X)BSA BSA-AML-15 Transaction Monitoring · BSA BSA-CDD-4 Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)
FATF 40 RecommendationsFATF R.10 Customer due diligence · FATF R.12 Politically exposed persons · FATF R.3 Money laundering offence
Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (Australia)AUSTRAC AMLCTF-PartA-TxnMon Transaction Monitoring

The obligations, quoted

BSA BSA-AML-15 Transaction Monitoring

Automated and manual transaction monitoring shall identify unusual or suspicious activity using risk-based scenarios and thresholds.

What an examiner asks to see: TM scenario inventory; Threshold tuning documentation; Above-the-line/below-the-line testing; Model validation reports
Where programmes usually fall short: No model validation; Scenarios not aligned to risk assessment
Source: Bank Secrecy Act and its regulations (31 CFR Chapter X)
BSA BSA-CDD-4 Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)

Higher-risk customers (PEPs, foreign correspondents, private banking) require enhanced due diligence including additional information collection, source of funds/wealth, senior management approval, and enhanced ongoing monitoring (31 U.S.C. 5318(i), 31 CFR 1010.610, 1010.620).

What an examiner asks to see: AML program documentation; KYC and CDD records; Transaction monitoring scenarios and tuning; SAR/STR filing register; Independent AML audit reports
Where programmes usually fall short: Beneficial ownership data incomplete; Monitoring scenarios not tuned to risk
Source: Bank Secrecy Act and its regulations (31 CFR Chapter X)
FATF R.10 Customer due diligence

Financial institutions may not keep anonymous accounts or accounts in obviously fictitious names and must, by a principle set out in law, undertake customer due diligence when establishing a business relationship, carrying out an occasional transaction above USD or EUR 15,000 or a payment or value transfer covered by INR.16, when money laundering or terrorist financing is suspected, or when they doubt previously obtained identification data: identify and verify the customer from reliable independent sources; identify the beneficial owner and take reasonable measures to verify that identity, understanding the ownership and control structure of legal persons and arrangements; understand and where appropriate obtain information on the purpose and intended nature of the relationship; and conduct ongoing due diligence and transaction scrutiny consistent with the customer's profile including, where necessary, the source of funds. The extent of each measure follows a risk-based approach; verification takes place before or during establishment of the relationship, or as soon as reasonably practicable after it where risks are managed and business would otherwise be interrupted; an institution that cannot complete CDD does not open the account or perform the transaction, or terminates the relationship, and considers a suspicious transaction report; the requirements apply to new customers and, on materiality and risk, to existing ones. The Interpretive Note sets the risk-based approach, enhanced and simplified measures, the specific measures for legal persons, arrangements and beneficiaries of life insurance, reliance on prior verification and the timing rules.

What an examiner asks to see: CDD policy and procedures with triggers and thresholds; Customer files with identity, beneficial ownership, purpose and risk rating; Ongoing monitoring and periodic review records
Where programmes usually fall short: Beneficial owner identified but never verified; Ownership and control structure of corporate customers not understood
Source: FATF 40 Recommendations
FATF R.12 Politically exposed persons

In relation to foreign PEPs as customers or beneficial owners, financial institutions, beyond normal CDD, have risk-management systems to determine whether a customer or beneficial owner is a PEP, obtain senior management approval to establish or continue the relationship, take reasonable measures to establish the source of wealth and source of funds, and conduct enhanced ongoing monitoring; they take reasonable measures to determine whether a customer or beneficial owner is a domestic PEP or a person entrusted with a prominent function by an international organisation and apply the same three measures where the relationship is higher risk; the requirements extend to family members and close associates; the Interpretive Note extends the measures to beneficiaries and beneficial owners of beneficiaries of life insurance policies.

What an examiner asks to see: PEP screening system and its coverage of domestic and international-organisation PEPs; Senior management approvals and source of wealth records; Enhanced monitoring rules for PEP relationships
Where programmes usually fall short: Screening limited to foreign PEPs; Family members and close associates not covered
Source: FATF 40 Recommendations
FATF R.3 Money laundering offence

Countries criminalise money laundering on the basis of the Vienna and Palermo Conventions and apply the offence to all serious offences so as to include the widest range of predicate offences; the Interpretive Note requires coverage of the designated categories of offences, extraterritorial predicates, the mental element inferable from objective circumstances, self-laundering where fundamental principles permit, ancillary offences and liability of legal persons with effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.

What an examiner asks to see: The money laundering offence provisions; List of predicate offences against the designated categories; Case law or statistics on prosecutions and corporate liability
Where programmes usually fall short: Predicate list omitting designated categories such as tax crimes; No corporate criminal or administrative liability
Source: FATF 40 Recommendations
AUSTRAC AMLCTF-PartA-TxnMon Transaction Monitoring

Systems and controls for monitoring customer transactions for unusual or suspicious activity.

What an examiner asks to see: Transaction monitoring system & rules; Alert investigation records
Where programmes usually fall short: No transaction monitoring
Source: Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (Australia)

Other typologies in trafficking and other priority red flags