AML Network

AML Courses

AML Network is not a training provider and does not accredit or examine anyone. What follows is a description of the training tracks we point readers towards, grouped by the work they support rather than by job title. Readers should satisfy themselves as to a provider's standing before enrolling.

Who the tracks are for

Four groups make up most of the enquiries we receive, and their needs diverge more than the shared vocabulary suggests.

  • Compliance analysts and MLRO teams — people who screen customers, review alerts and decide whether a matter is reported. They need procedure and evidentiary discipline above all.
  • Journalists and researchers — people working from public records towards publication rather than towards a filing, and operating without a regulator's powers of compulsion.
  • Investigators — law enforcement, asset-recovery and private investigative staff who need to trace value across entities and borders and to preserve what they find.
  • Board members and senior managers — those carrying accountability for the control framework, who need enough of the subject to interrogate the reporting they are given.

Foundation track

Foundation material assumes no prior knowledge and covers the ground anyone handling suspicion is expected to know. A credible syllabus addresses four areas.

  • Typologies — placement, layering and integration; cash-intensive businesses; money mule networks; trade mis-invoicing; the use of professional intermediaries and corporate vehicles.
  • KYC and CDD — identification and verification, the distinction between source of funds and source of wealth, ongoing monitoring, and enhanced due diligence for politically exposed persons and higher-risk jurisdictions.
  • Sanctions — screening and name matching, handling false positives, ownership and control tests, and indicators of deliberate circumvention.
  • SAR and STR filing — recognising grounds for suspicion, writing a report a financial intelligence unit can act on, restrictions on tipping off, and record-keeping obligations.

Good foundation courses anchor this in the risk-based approach set out in the FATF Recommendations and show how it is given effect by the EU's AMLD and AMLR framework, the US Bank Secrecy Act and the UK Money Laundering Regulations, rather than teaching one jurisdiction as though it were universal.

Advanced track

Advanced material suits people who already file reports or build cases and now need to work structures that are designed to defeat routine screening.

  • Trade-based laundering — invoice mis-pricing, over- and under-shipment, phantom shipments, abuse of documentary credits, and the role of free trade zones and commodity intermediaries.
  • Cryptocurrency tracing — address clustering and attribution, chain-hopping, mixers and cross-chain bridges, exchange and VASP due diligence, and the practical limits of travel rule data.
  • Beneficial-ownership analysis — reading corporate registries and their gaps, nominee and trustee arrangements, layered holdings across jurisdictions, and reconciling inconsistent filings for the same group.

Advanced teaching should be case-led. Ask whether participants work through real structures drawn from public records and closed enforcement matters, or only from illustrative slides.

Journalism and OSINT track

The journalistic track shares its typologies with the compliance tracks but differs in method and in consequence, because the output is publication rather than a confidential report.

  • Records work — company registries, land and property records, court files, procurement awards, shipping and customs data, and how to combine them into a defensible chain of inference.
  • Verification and provenance — documenting how each record was obtained, preserving originals, dating captures, and keeping an audit trail a lawyer can review.
  • Legal and ethical constraints — data protection, defamation exposure, the handling of leaked material and source protection.
  • Operational security — device and communications hygiene for work that may attract hostile attention or litigation.

How certification works in this sector

There is no single global licence to practise in anti-money-laundering work. Professional associations, universities and commercial training firms each issue their own credentials, and recognition varies considerably by jurisdiction and employer. The common pattern is taught hours or guided self-study, a proctored examination, then continuing professional development and periodic renewal to keep the credential in good standing. Regulators generally require firms to ensure staff are trained and competent; they rarely mandate a named certificate.

Before paying, it is worth asking who writes and marks the examination, whether it is independently invigilated, how often the syllabus is revised against current legislative text, what continuing development is required afterwards, and whether the credential is recognised by employers in the jurisdiction you actually work in.

Enquiries

Write to support@amlreview.co. It helps to state your role, your jurisdiction, whether you are looking at foundation or advanced material, and whether your employer requires a recognised certificate or simply evidence of training. We also welcome corrections and suggestions from readers who have completed courses in these areas, including where a syllabus has fallen behind the current rules.