The role of an anti money laundering consultant is to advise and assist clients on how to comply with the AML rules and regulations. By following AML rules and regulations, one can prevent money laundering, terrorist financing and other illicit or illegal activities. A consultant can work with financial institutions, law firms, consulting firms, or other government agencies. The main job of a consultant is to assess risks and perform audits so that a client can work following the protocols of AML. To work with anti-money laundering compliance, a consultant should have different skills:
• Integrity
One of the vital characteristics that a professional should have is integrity. Businesses that are at high risk can work with only the employees whom they can trust. All the employees that are working within an organization should know each other to reduce the risk. The AML consultant should be highly transparent with the employees of the company. It is the responsibility of a consultant to keep the organization away from any confusion, doubts and identity biases.
• Knowledge of industry
No one will be able to perform well with perfection and efficiency if they don’t have industry-specific knowledge. A consultant should have enough knowledge regarding the industry and should keep himself updated with the latest techniques to perform well in the industry. They should also be able to perform customer due diligence and risk assessment.
• Updated with latest trends
The AML rules and regulations keep on changing over the passage of time therefore a consultant is required to stay updated with the new rules and regulations to implement in the industry to prevent any kind of penalty and loss to the organization. In addition to that, legal requirements also keep on changing so it is the duty of the consultant to stay updated with the latest requirements to allow an organization to work in compliance.
In addition to these rules, they should have the ability to interpret whether a transaction is suspicious and actions are required to be taken. Moreover, they should have characteristics such as risk assessment, problem-solving, knowledge about vulnerability and so on.
