Money Laundering
The process of disguising or transforming proceeds linked to criminal activity so their illicit origin is obscured. Placement, layering and integration are useful learning models, while legal definitions vary by jurisdiction.
AML/CFT LEARNING · ENGLISH
AML/CFT Foundations for Students
A structured English-language version of the RegTech Nexus AI AML/CFT Student Knowledge Hub. It covers anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, transaction monitoring, TBML, payment safety and evidence-based learning.
01 · LEARNBuild the foundationRead core concepts and definitions.
02 · PRACTICEApply the conceptUse examples and control context.
03 · SELF-CHECKTest yourselfReveal answers and identify gaps.
04 · EVIDENCEVerify sourcesUse authoritative material for current requirements.
Foundation
Terrorist Financing
Concerns financing associated with terrorism-related activity and can involve funds from legitimate or illegitimate sources. The control objective is to identify and mitigate relevant financial risks.
Risk-Based Approach
AML/CFT controls should reflect identified ML/TF risks. FATF treats the risk-based approach as a central part of its standards and expects risks to be identified, assessed and understood.
Core Control Concepts
KYC / CDD
Understand customer identification, verification, purpose and intended nature of relationships, ongoing due diligence and risk-sensitive monitoring.
Beneficial Ownership
Identify the natural person(s) who ultimately own or control a legal person or arrangement, or on whose behalf a transaction is conducted, according to the applicable definition.
Transaction Monitoring
Institutions use rules, scenarios, analytics and investigation processes to identify potentially unusual activity. A red flag is an indicator for review, not proof of crime.
STR / SAR
Understand suspicious transaction/activity reporting and why escalation, investigation and reporting requirements depend on applicable law and institutional procedures.
Sanctions
Study sanctions screening as a financial-crime control and distinguish screening alerts from confirmed matches and legal conclusions.
Control Testing
Ask: What is the control objective? What evidence demonstrates operation? What exception was found? What remediation is required?
Facebook Learning Bank · AML/CFT, TBML & Financial Safety
This learning bank converts selected RegTech Nexus AI Facebook-page material into structured Q&A, case analysis and self-testing. The source content came from the connected Facebook page through Metricool.
Original Facebook Page: Open RegTech Nexus AI Facebook Page ↗
Source provenance and verification rule
The material is authentic as page content because it came from the owner's connected Facebook page. That does not mean every historical operational figure, legal statement or regulatory claim is automatically current. Professional use requires verification against applicable primary sources.
Placement · Layering · Integration
The traditional learning model describes potential stages through which illicit proceeds may enter the financial system, become obscured through transactions and appear integrated into the legitimate economy. Actual cases may not follow a neat three-stage sequence.
Red Flag ≠ Proof
A monitoring alert, unusual payment, price deviation, complex ownership structure or unusual device/payment pattern is a signal for review. It should not be presented as proof of money laundering, fraud or another offence without appropriate investigation and evidence.
OTP & Authorised Push Payment
An OTP can authenticate possession of a communication channel without necessarily proving the customer's informed intent for a specific transaction. Payment controls should consider social engineering, customer confirmation and transaction context.
Network-Level Monitoring
Where relevant, review relationships among customer, payer, beneficiary, account, device, IP, merchant/operator and transaction patterns rather than relying only on isolated transactions.
Trade Evidence Chain
Connect invoice, LC, packing list, certificate of origin, Bill of Lading, customs declarations, Incoterm, ownership and payment-flow evidence. A single anomaly is not by itself proof of TBML.
Connected Payment Ecosystems
Multiple accounts, rapid deposits and withdrawals, common devices or counterparties and offshore or unlicensed operators may create indicators requiring proportionate review where relevant.
TBML CASE LAB
Over-Invoicing + Related Counterparty + Reverse Flow
Connect multiple evidence layers: valuation, trade documents, Incoterm, ownership and payment flow.
| Risk question | Learning evidence |
|---|---|
| Valuation | Compare declared price with credible market/comparable data while controlling for grade, quantity, quality and unit of measure. |
| Trade documents | Reconcile invoice, LC, packing list, certificate of origin, Bill of Lading and customs declarations. |
| Incoterm | Check whether FOB/CFR/CIF or another rule is appropriate and whether named place/port and cost/risk allocation make commercial sense. |
| Ownership | Identify UBOs, related parties, common directors, addresses and service-provider relationships. |
| Payment flow | Analyse payer, beneficiary, intermediary, SWIFT/payment references and timing for potential circular or reverse flows. |
| Escalation | Where connected indicators warrant it, follow applicable EDD, investigation, MLRO/CAMLCO and reporting procedures. |
AML/CFT STUDY BANK
Bonus 1. Bonus 2. Bonus 3.
50-Question Money Laundering & AML/CFT Study Bank
Dedicated 50-question revision section. Click each question to reveal the answer. The wording is designed for student learning, revision, awareness, poster/carousel use and quiz practice.
Study note: distinguish facts, risk indicators and legal requirements. PEP status, shell-company status, high transaction value or a red flag is not by itself proof of wrongdoing.
1. What is AML?
Answer: Anti-Money Laundering.
2. What is CFT?
Answer: Countering the Financing of Terrorism.
3. What is KYC?
Answer: Know Your Customer.
4. What is CDD?
Answer: Customer Due Diligence.
5. When can EDD be relevant?
Answer: In higher-risk relationships or contexts.
6. What is a PEP?
Answer: Politically Exposed Person.
7. What is a beneficial owner?
Answer: The natural person who ultimately owns or controls an entity or arrangement, or on whose behalf a transaction is conducted, subject to the applicable definition.
8. What is an FIU?
Answer: Financial Intelligence Unit.
9. What is a shell company?
Answer: An entity with limited or unclear substantial operating activity that may be misused.
10. What is sanctions screening?
Answer: Screening relevant parties or transactions against applicable sanctions lists.
11. What is terrorist financing?
Answer: Financing risk associated with terrorism-related activity.
12. What is a risk-based approach?
Answer: Applying proportionate controls based on identified risk.
13. What is a red flag?
Answer: A risk indicator that may require further review.
14. What is Source of Funds?
Answer: The origin of specific funds involved in a transaction or relationship.
15. What is Source of Wealth?
Answer: How the customer's overall wealth was accumulated.
16. What is a customer risk rating?
Answer: The assessed ML/TF risk level of a customer or context.
17. Why may a PEP relationship require additional attention?
Answer: The applicable risk framework may require consideration of corruption, ML/TF and related exposure.
18. What is suspicious activity?
Answer: Activity that, in context, may reasonably trigger review or escalation.
19. What is layering?
Answer: Using transactions or structures to potentially obscure the trail of funds.
20. What is financial crime?
Answer: A broad field including fraud, money laundering, corruption and other financial offences.
21. What is a customer profile?
Answer: A set of identity, purpose, expected-activity and relevant risk information.
22. What is false identity?
Answer: Use of false, forged or misleading identity information.
23. What is a sanctions list?
Answer: A list of persons or entities designated under an applicable sanctions regime.
24. What is a high-risk jurisdiction?
Answer: A jurisdiction presenting heightened risk based on relevant AML/CFT, sanctions or other risk factors.
25. What is one responsibility of a compliance officer?
Answer: Supporting the compliance framework, escalation, monitoring and reporting processes.
26. What is smurfing?
Answer: Potentially dividing funds into smaller transactions to obscure movement or avoid detection thresholds.
27. What is a money mule?
Answer: A person whose account or access is used to receive or move another person's funds, knowingly or unknowingly.
28. What is a dormant account?
Answer: An account with no activity for a defined period under applicable rules.
29. What is an unusual transaction?
Answer: A transaction that is inconsistent with the customer's profile or expected activity.
30. Who is a high-risk customer?
Answer: A customer or context assessed as presenting comparatively higher ML/TF risk.
31. What is a virtual asset?
Answer: A digitally represented value that may be electronically traded or transferred, subject to the applicable definition.
32. What is a false positive?
Answer: A legitimate activity or party incorrectly identified as an alert or match.
33. Why is record retention important?
Answer: To support audit, investigation, supervisory and legal obligations.
34. What is geographic risk?
Answer: AML/CFT risk arising from relevant country or regional risk factors.
35. What is a transaction monitoring system?
Answer: A system using rules, scenarios or analytics to analyse transaction patterns.
36. What is a cash-intensive business?
Answer: A business in which cash transactions may represent a significant proportion of activity.
37. What is a front company?
Answer: A legitimate-looking business structure that may be misused to conceal other activity or funds.
38. What is an anonymous transaction?
Answer: A transaction where the relevant payer or beneficiary identity is not adequately known, verified or traceable.
39. What is a third-party transaction?
Answer: A transaction involving funding, benefit or control by a party other than the account holder.
40. What is a non-face-to-face customer?
Answer: A customer onboarded or maintained without physical face-to-face interaction.
41. What is a sanctioned entity?
Answer: A person or entity designated under an applicable sanctions regime.
42. What is a predicate offence?
Answer: Underlying criminal conduct from which proceeds may be generated.
43. What is a beneficiary account?
Answer: The account designated to receive a payment or funds.
44. What is correct about a high-value transaction?
Answer: High value alone is not suspicious; context and risk must be assessed.
45. What is compliance culture?
Answer: An organisational culture in which laws, controls, escalation and ethical conduct are followed in practice.
46. What is placement?
Answer: The potential introduction of illicit proceeds into the financial system.
47. What is integration?
Answer: The potential appearance of illicit proceeds as apparently legitimate assets or economic activity.
48. What is transaction monitoring primarily intended to do?
Answer: Identify activity that may warrant investigation or escalation based on defined risk indicators.
49. Why is beneficial ownership important?
Answer: It improves transparency about the natural persons who ultimately own or control an entity or arrangement.
50. Why should a red flag not be treated as proof?
Answer: Because an indicator requires contextual review, evidence and appropriate investigation.
Bonus Awareness Questions
Why should an institution document the rationale for closing an alert?
Answer: To make the review, evidence, decision and escalation rationale traceable and auditable.
Why can a legitimate transaction still generate an alert?
Answer: Monitoring models use indicators and scenarios that can identify legitimate activity as well as potentially suspicious activity.
Why must current legal thresholds be verified?
Answer: STR/CTR thresholds, reporting destinations, retention periods and sector obligations are jurisdiction-specific and may change.
Professional-use note: STR/CTR thresholds, reporting destination, record-retention periods, PEP/EDD obligations and other legal requirements must be checked against the applicable current law, regulator/FIU instruction and institutional policy.
50-Question AML/CFT Interactive Quiz
The quiz uses the same 50 study concepts. Select one answer for each question, then submit.
Progress: 0 / 50 answered
Case Studies · AML/CFT in Practice
Use these scenarios to connect risk → control → evidence → escalation. They are educational cases, not legal determinations.
Layered ownership structure
A corporate customer has several holding companies across jurisdictions and account activity does not clearly match the stated business purpose.
- Map ownership and control to natural persons.
- Compare stated purpose with expected activity.
- Identify EDD questions and documentary evidence.
Unusual cross-border payments
A customer with low expected turnover suddenly sends multiple high-value payments involving new counterparties and jurisdictions.
- Compare activity with the customer risk profile.
- Separate alert indicators from proof of wrongdoing.
- Document investigation, disposition and escalation rationale.
Trade-document inconsistency
Invoice values, goods descriptions, shipping details and payment flows do not align across a trade transaction.
- Reconcile commercial and transport documents.
- Identify plausible TBML indicators and information gaps.
- Record source evidence before escalation.
Connected gambling/payment ecosystem
Several small deposits move through different e-wallets or payment accounts followed by rapid withdrawals to another person's account. Devices, IP addresses or network attributes may overlap.
- Connect customer, payer, account, device, IP, beneficiary and operator information.
- Compare activity with the expected profile.
- Consider offshore or unlicensed operators where relevant.
Price anomaly with trade-document mismatch
A cross-border shipment shows a large price deviation together with potential related-party links and inconsistent invoice, shipping and payment information.
- Verify beneficial ownership.
- Identify the stated Incoterm and named place/port.
- Compare goods, HS classification, quantity, quality and benchmark pricing.
- Reconcile LC, invoice, packing list, Bill of Lading, customs data and payment evidence.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING RESOURCE · INCOTERMS® 2020
Incoterms® 2020 — Trade Risk & TBML Learning
Incoterms® 2020 helps learners understand contractual allocation of delivery, risk transfer, carriage, insurance and costs. In AML/CFT and TBML review, it provides useful transaction context: Incoterm → named place/port → goods → documents → freight/insurance → payment flow.
Why it matters: An Incoterm does not by itself prove that a transaction is genuine or free of TBML risk. It can, however, help a reviewer test whether the contract, invoice, LC, Bill of Lading, customs data, ownership information and payment evidence form a commercially coherent transaction.
- Connect Incoterms® with the TBML evidence chain.
- Review named place/port, delivery/risk point and documentary consistency.
- Separate risk indicators from verified facts and formal regulatory conclusions.
Learning note: Incoterms® rules do not replace the sale contract, customs/tax requirements or AML/CFT controls. Verify current professional requirements against applicable primary sources.
Explore Incoterms® 2020 →Resources & Current Source Verification
FATF Recommendations
Use the current FATF Recommendations for international AML/CFT standards, then apply Bangladesh-specific law and BFIU instructions where relevant.
Open FATF Recommendations ↗BFIU
Use the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit for applicable Bangladesh AML/CFT guidance, circulars and reporting information.
Open BFIU ↗Evidence-first learning
For professional work, verify the applicable primary source, record the evidence used, distinguish facts from indicators and document the review rationale.
Learning & privacy note
This page is an educational Student Knowledge Hub. Do not enter confidential customer, account, transaction or personally identifiable information into public learning exercises. Use fictional or properly authorised data for practice.