It is necessary to have at least one employee on staff with an AML certificate To protect an organization from the illegal actions of financial criminals. As a rule, these can be financiers, accountants, lawyers, and other employees with financial or legal education. But the question arises: how do you choose the best AML courses?
AML courses will allow you to detail various financial fraud schemes and acquire specific skills to identify illegal money transfers. Having a certified employee (or department) within the company who will be responsible for the legality of all transactions carried out, the head of the company will be reliably protected thanks to competent control of financial flows. It is unlikely that any employee with only a financial, economic, or legal education will be able to assess the possible risks associated with the actions of financial criminals. In this case, analytics and timely response are critical to prevent illegal transactions when the financial scheme has yet to be fully implemented.
What should you consider when choosing AML courses?
Often, many educational institutions offer courses of the same name, and choosing right away takes a lot of work. To select an AML course successfully, you must consider the following aspects during a comparative analysis.
What does the programme include?
An employee who plans to obtain an AML certificate must clearly understand what topics will be included in the course programme and what will be emphasized. As a rule, each topic has an individual duration – it can be 2 hours, and some questions can be devoted to only 20 minutes. Also, courses may be focused on specific areas of activity: banking, finance, or management of non-financial companies.
An essential factor is to provide examples of actual cases and the methods for solving them. It is also necessary that all course material is provided to students in paper or electronic form. If something needs to be included in the lecture, it can be filled in.
Please find out about the educational institution itself and the AML teacher
When choosing a course, it is essential to consider its educational institution and, most importantly, learn better about the teacher. The quality of teaching plays a massive role in the effective learning of the material. In addition, when choosing a teacher, you need to pay attention to the following marks:
- he or she has education and practical experience in the financial sector and the fight against identifying financial criminals;
- age – a teacher who has recently been a student himself and has no practical experience will not be able to ensure the high quality of the course;
- teacher rating – you can ask former students what the lecturer is like, read reviews and comments on the institution’s website, and inquire about the future careers of his former students.
- personal opinion – if possible, it is advisable to meet the teacher personally and ask him questions about the course that interests you.
The more information you collect about the teacher and his teaching methods, the easier it will be to make a choice.
Find out what the form of training will be
It is better when there is an opportunity for face-to-face and online training. Most students are working professionals, and attending courses in person will only sometimes be possible. The schedule is also important: for some, it is better to get a certificate every day and faster, while for others 2, classes a week are fine, but with a more extended completion date. Rarely, there may be hybrid forms of learning – the student masters some part of the material independently. Therefore, find out about these aspects in advance.
Number of hours of training and their cost
It is recommended to inquire about teaching hours for multiple courses. Considering the topic of the same name, the hourly duration of the courses may be approximately the same. But if there are significant differences, you need to more carefully familiarize yourself with the course topics and how much time is allocated for each topic. For some, the cost may matter, so everyone chooses from their financial capabilities.
How does the exam work and is it possible to retake the exam?
For many, the form of taking the exam is essential:
- communication with the teacher;
- answer questions in writing;
- get tested.
As a rule, this is testing, but there are different cases, so if this will matter to you, it is better to find out in advance. For unsure students, it is essential to have the option to retake the exam, but this will incur an additional fee.
Conclusion
As you can see, to make the right choice in favour of one of the anti-money laundering courses under consideration, you need to consider many aspects. After all, it is high-quality training with specific examples of financial fraud that can give effective results and positively influence the future career of an inexperienced student (or practitioner).