To certify or not to certify
Like any profession, becoming an anti-money laundering (AML) Professional often mandates certain certifications and qualifications. As employers, you seek to find a way to trust the knowledge base of a potential employee. As employees, you struggle to ascertain what accreditation to require or take. The options for this are endless, and increase where a speciality is sought. From the perspective of an employee who sometimes has to front the cost, before you run off to get certified, there are quite a few things you may want to consider. The factors to consider are not only that of entry level versus senior level positions, or about the explicit requirements of the proposed new employer, or internal promotion. The primary considerations are cost, value added and necessity of attaining any specific training and certification.
There are a number of free sessions available online and these most, if not all, offer a certificate of attendance or completion. ACAMS.org regularly offers free courses to anyone on endless topics including sanctions, suspicious transactions and more both generic and specific to a particular region. TCAE offers free webinars on trending global topics in the industry with free attendance and a nominal fee for a certificate of attendance. Heliocor, RAW Compliance, Alessa, and many more organizations offer free webinars within their speciality of service and also provide a certificate at the end of the webinar for free. For additional options, increase your connections on LinkedIn as many post about upcoming or past events. Arguably, these webinars do not generally provide a foundation in the compliance field and may not necessarily be considered as training. However, these webinars are highly informative, provide a lot of best practices, spotlight trends and offer guidance free from experts in the field with ranging backgrounds and eye-opening perspectives. If an existing or potential post does not require certification, these free webinars are a viable option.
As a side note, if you prefer the written word, you should look for The Laundry created by Dev Odedra, or follow Glenna Smith on LinkedIn who regularly posts interesting articles on recent compliance cases, or subscribe to KYC360, Chainalysis or a similar site. Articles offer a quick reference to changes in law or recent cases that provide better insight on potential red flags and trends. Ultimately, understanding more about real life cases would increase your ability to speak knowledgeably about the effectiveness of a strong AML program and the need to comply with it.
If these free alternatives are not sufficient to provide you with foundational knowledge that you feel is needed, there are reputable institutions that provide basic entry level introductory structured training to give you the confidence needed in this field. The American Bankers Association offers a wide range of courses under 60 minute each of training sessions such as BSA/AML Complying with the BSA for $75. ICA offers about 7 courses at $260 for a length of 4-hours. ACAMS.org also offers basic training with almost 20 courses at $695 for a length of 4-hours also. The benefit of these short courses is not only the low cost and the manageable duration but that it gives you an introduction to the field without the need for breaking the piggy bank. For a more detailed understanding of AML Compliance, STEP.org has an Anti-Money Laundering certificate at the cost of GBP 1,100 plus VAT. These certifications are better for positions with preferred but not required training.
Generally, if you can speak intelligently about the field and have the required years of experience, certification is not necessarily required. However, an employer may be adamant about obtaining certified training. In some jurisdictions, regulators may require that certain AML Compliance positions such as AML Designated Person, Money Laundering Compliance Officer, Money Laundering Reporting Officer or other, attain certifications. Therefore, if yet higher qualifications are required, ICA has 4 additional levels from introductory courses at $800 to advanced at $4,615 while ACAMS.org only has 3 levels from associate level at $995 to advanced at $1,995 (or $2,480 with virtual classroom if offered). CFCS has 1 level at a price of $1,245. The most globally recognized organizations that offer compliance training are these two organizations; ACAMS.org and ICA. I met someone who took the ACAMS.org exam but taught for ICA and in his opinion both were comparable and sufficient for purposes. I have come to prefer ACAMS due to accessibility of information on the website; free webinars and articles without membership. With membership, it does appear on the surface that both organizations offer the same benefits. However, I’ll admit my bias in having comfort with the website, connections through the organization and proximity to my current residence. Either way, it does not matter which organization you’ve taken your exam with, you can pick either for membership or even both if so inclined.
Note you can join either organization without attaining a certification, however ICA has 5 different levels for membership, whereas ACAMS.org has only one. I’d be inclined to suggest joining ACAMS.org for the ease of use of their website, and their increasing global reach and innovation. I must admit that I am a three time certified AML specialist by ACAMS, so with complete transparency, I’m obviously just a touch biased.
