Tip #1: Review your documents well in advance. Don’t wait until just before your audit is due. Give yourself plenty of time to review and amend your documents and you will get a much better result.
Tip #2: Keep up to date. Set aside a regular timeslot in your calendar to keep up to date. Good sources of practical hands-on information include newsletters, AML/CFT articles on Radar (Strategi’s online education portal) as well as new information that the supervisors have released. If you don’t have time to read this information as it arrives in your inbox, file it away and read it at your allocated time.
Tip #3: Complete the required training. Make sure your AML/CFT compliance officer understands what the training requirements are and is keeping a record of what staff do what training (including training new staff when they join the business).
*Strategi is now offering AML/CFT refresher webinars that are sector specific – law, accounting, real estate and financial services). This is a great way to get your annual staff AML/CFT training requirement completed. Find out more.
Tip #4: Use technology to simplify the burden. Don’t put technology in the ‘too hard basket’. With the right technology and the right help, it can be both easy and transformative for your AML/CFT programme. Our team are experts in this field so give us a call and we can let you know what technology might be appropriate for your business.
Tip #5: Version control your documents: Whilst not compulsory, employing good version control will help you demonstrate that you have been regularly reviewing and updating your documents. If you are a larger company, we recommend including version history and board review dates on the front cover of your AML/CFT documents.
Tip #6: Action last audit recommendations: Make sure you have actioned all recommendations from your last audit. It will be hard to convince an auditor that you have not had time to fix things considering the last audit was up to three years ago. From a process point of view, our advice is to action audit recommendations as soon as you receive them. Everything will be fresh in your mind, and it will save you time in the long run.
Tip #7: Talk regularly with your auditor: Your auditor is there to assess your AML/CFT compliance status. They are not the AML/CFT supervisor so don’t treat them as a scary ogre. While they must remain independent and can’t be your ‘friend’ they are very knowledgeable and want to help so pick up the phone and talk to them about issues which may be concerning you.