Anti-Money Laundering
Anti-Money Laundering refers to the laws, regulations, and procedures designed to prevent criminals from disguising illegally obtained funds as legitimate income. In the UK, the primary framework is the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017), which applies to accountants, lawyers, estate agents, and certain financial businesses.
accountants encounter AML as the overarching compliance framework that requires them to verify clients, assess risk, monitor relationships, and keep records.
How different roles use Anti-Money Laundering
A good definition should change the next action for the person reading it.
Partner or director
Check whether this term affects acceptance risk, fee scope, supervision exposure, or sign-off responsibility.
ContinueMLRO or compliance lead
Map the term to evidence, escalation, monitoring, training, and inspection readiness.
ContinueClient-facing team member
Use the plain-English explanation to ask better client questions and write clearer file notes.
ContinueOther terms that go with Anti-Money Laundering
Know Your Customer is the process of verifying the identity of a client, understanding their business activities, and assessing the risk they present. KYC is the practical expression of Customer Due Diligence obligations — it answers the question: who is this person or business, and is it safe to act for them?
Customer Due Diligence is the core legal obligation under MLR 2017 to identify clients, verify their identity using reliable independent sources, and understand the purpose and intended nature of the business relationship. Standard CDD applies to most clients. Where risk is elevated, Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) is required instead.
A Money Laundering Reporting Officer is the individual within a regulated business who is responsible for receiving internal suspicious activity reports, deciding whether to submit external SARs to the National Crime Agency, and overseeing the firm's AML compliance programme. Appointing an MLRO is a legal requirement for businesses within the scope of MLR 2017. In SRA-regulated law firms, the MLRO role sits alongside the Money Laundering Compliance Officer (MLCO) — the MLRO owns SAR reporting under POCA; the MLCO owns the firm's overall AML system under MLR 2017.
Before you treat Anti-Money Laundering as handled
- Confirm which regulation, policy, or internal procedure the term maps to.
- Document the decision or evidence trail in the client file, not only in email or chat.
- Escalate where the term indicates higher risk, sanctions exposure, PEP status, suspicion, or missing evidence.
- Keep the wording consistent across onboarding, review notes, training material, and inspection packs.
Put Anti-Money Laundering into practice with Certivus
Knowing the term is the first step. Certivus gives you the workflows — client intake, CDD, EDD, PEP and sanctions screening, audit-ready records — to apply it across every client.
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