Tim Pinkney
Director of Professional Standards, Institute of Financial Accountants, UK AML Supervisor, Member of the Institute of Public Accountants Group
Around 73% of members that the Institute of Financial Accountants (IFA) supervises for AML are sole practitioners. Being a sole practitioner can often mean they don’t have the peer-to-peer support that’s common in larger practices, and need extra support from us to navigate their AML responsibilities.
Understandably, people get worried about their AML reviews. Failing can mean fines, reputational damage and, if the business doesn’t improve, exclusion – so they can no longer legally act for their clients.
To give businesses the best chance of compliant, we provide a lot of help and guidance about the practical steps they need to take to get there. But there’s still no guarantee they’ll get it completely right. That’s where AMLCC comes in.
“AMLCC helps to build a compliance culture”
There’s nothing like AMLCC in the market
The AML market is a bit like the Wild West. I’ve come across many platforms and software businesses that claim to be complete AML solutions. But AMLCC is one of the few I’ve seen which actually covers all the aspects of AML and can help a business achieve better compliance.
When Richard Simms first created AMLCC, I was involved in the development meetings, contributing thoughts on the features that we needed as a supervisor and passing on anecdotal feedback from users.
From the very beginning, AMLCC has been a platform that makes it easier to build and demonstrate a compliance culture. You can see all the key elements of a business’ AML on there: Have the AML PCPs been tailored, read and accepted by staff? Has everyone completed their training? Are you up to date with risk assessments? These are all central to achieving compliance.
If we see a business is using AMLCC correctly, we know the review will be more straight-forward
If the business we’re reviewing is using AMLCC, all they need to do is grant us access and we can perform their AML review using the read-only capabilities. That’s a big plus for us.
If a business can’t demonstrate how it meets its legal AML requirements, we deem it to be non-compliant. We can see very quickly if a business has used AMLCC correctly. If they have, we know it’s being proactive about achieving compliance.
As an example, our reviewers will look at whether the business’ AML PCPs have been tailored to its unique risks, or if they’ve used the comment boxes to add details to their risk assessments. If they have, we know that business is engaging with its responsibilities.
We actually train our reviewers to use AMLCC as if they were the accountant. This means they can give practical guidance if there’s anything that needs to be done differently on the platform.
Ultimately, when used to its fullest, AMLCC allows a business to tackle its AML responsibilities head on and stay on top of AML compliance. It also helps that business demonstrate its compliance to its regulator.
What others have said
“We had the man from the ICAEW here yesterday to carry out a QAD practice review. We got a clean bill of health – not a single action point…That is in no small measure due to AMLCC so I just wanted to say ‘thank you’”
“Thank you for such a perfect and informative [solution]. You have given me a clear direction for my AML training and CPD.”
“I just wanted to say ‘thank you’ to you, Richard, and all the team at AMLCC for providing a service that really does minimise the burden of AML compliance.”
“What a refreshing pleasure working with a company who actually listens to the feedback from their customers and communicates with them!”
“Your team they have been excellent from the moment Fiona did a demo for me with only 15 minutes notice, and thoroughly going through the AMLCC product, answering the many questions I had! It was at this point at which I made up my mind this is the sort of business I want to work with for my AML.”
Making compliance easier
