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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for AML Analyst

💰 $ - $

ComplianceRiskAnti-Money LaunderingFinancial Crime

🎯 Role Definition

An AML Analyst is a compliance professional responsible for detecting, investigating and reporting suspicious financial activity consistent with money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes. The AML Analyst performs transaction monitoring reviews, conducts KYC/CDD and EDD investigations, prepares Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), supports sanctions and PEP screening, optimizes detection rules, and ensures regulatory compliance with BSA, OFAC, FATF and relevant local laws. The role interfaces with fraud teams, legal, operations, and regulators to mitigate risk and continuously improve the AML program.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior AML Analyst / AML Operations Specialist
  • Financial Crime Investigator / Fraud Analyst
  • Compliance Analyst with exposure to KYC/CDD

Advancement To:

  • Senior AML Analyst / AML Investigator
  • AML Team Lead / Supervisor
  • Financial Crimes Compliance Manager
  • Sanctions & Screening Specialist

Lateral Moves:

  • Sanctions Analyst
  • KYC/CDD Analyst / Onboarding Specialist
  • Fraud Analytics / Transaction Monitoring Specialist
  • Regulatory Compliance Analyst

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Lead end-to-end investigations of alerts generated by transaction monitoring systems (Actimize, NICE, FIS, SAS, in-house TMS), gathering transaction histories, account documentation, customer profiles and behavioral patterns to determine if activity is suspicious and merits filing a SAR.
  • Conduct comprehensive KYC/CDD reviews for new and existing customers, validating identity, beneficial ownership, source of funds, purpose of account, and risk ratings; escalate for enhanced due diligence (EDD) when risk indicators or PEP/sanctions flags are present.
  • Prepare clear, accurate and timely Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) and supporting narratives in accordance with BSA/AML regulations and internal policy, ensuring inclusion of actionable intelligence for law enforcement and FIU consumption.
  • Perform sanctions and watchlist screening (OFAC, UN, EU, HMT and local lists), triage hits, investigate false positives and true matches, and manage remediations including blocking, unblocking and interdiction workflows.
  • Execute transaction monitoring tuning and rules optimization: analyze false positive trends, propose threshold adjustments, develop new scenarios, and test rule performance to improve detection efficiency and reduce alert volumes.
  • Analyze complex multi-jurisdictional transaction patterns to identify layering, structuring and cross-border typologies, leveraging open-source intelligence (OSINT), PEP databases, adverse media and corporate registries.
  • Conduct enhanced due diligence (EDD) on high-risk entities and individuals, including politically exposed persons (PEPs), high-net-worth individuals, non-resident accounts and high-risk jurisdictions; document conclusions and remediation actions.
  • Collaborate with data analytics and model validation teams to validate AML models, backtest scenarios, review model outputs, and support calibration exercises for AML detection models and machine learning initiatives.
  • Maintain accurate investigation case management by documenting findings, preserving chain of evidence, updating case statuses and ensuring timely closure in case management systems.
  • Escalate and coordinate referrals to Legal and senior Compliance for potential SAR filing, account restrictions, suspicious activity freezes, or law enforcement engagement; participate in regulator queries and examinations.
  • Deliver periodic risk assessments, trend reports and KPI dashboards to senior management that summarize alert volumes, SAR filing rates, typologies observed, high-risk customers, and remediation progress.
  • Review and approve suspicious activity reports prepared by junior analysts, provide coaching on narrative quality, evidence sufficiency, and regulatory considerations, and ensure compliance with internal QA standards.
  • Support customer remediation programs including account reviews, enhanced monitoring, documentation requests, and ensuring remediation tasks are completed and tracked to closure.
  • Conduct peer reviews and quality assurance sampling of closed investigations to ensure consistency with internal policies and external regulatory expectations; implement corrective actions where gaps are identified.
  • Engage in sanction screening remediation projects, including historical screening, retrospective reviews and de-duplication of watchlist matches to reduce operational risk and improve screening accuracy.
  • Participate in cross-functional working groups (legal, MLRO, operations, IT, fraud) to coordinate responses to new regulatory requirements, system implementations, and complex investigations involving multiple stakeholders.
  • Prepare detailed responses to supervisory examinations, law enforcement subpoenas, and regulatory information requests; compile required documentation and ensure timely, accurate deliveries.
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of AML regulatory changes, typologies, industry best practices and relevant case law; design and deliver training sessions to business units to raise AML awareness.
  • Support sanctions license requests, blocked funds handling, and remittance investigations in collaboration with Treasury or Legal teams where required by jurisdictional requirements.
  • Perform customer risk rating, periodic reviews and remediation of outdated or inadequate KYC/CDD files, ensuring accounts are risk-assessed according to latest AML policy and remediation plans are executed.
  • Analyze and report unusual trade finance, securities, crypto and cross-border payment activity as part of specialized AML monitoring programs; liaise with subject matter experts for deep-dive investigations.
  • Develop and maintain playbooks, investigation templates, SAR narrative frameworks and standard operating procedures to streamline investigator workflow and improve SAR quality.
  • Assist with onboarding and vendor due diligence for third-party AML tools and screening providers; evaluate vendor performance, false positive rates and data quality.
  • Monitor emerging risks such as virtual assets, peer-to-peer payments and new payment rails; propose and implement new detection scenarios, enhanced monitoring criteria and training to address these risks.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc intelligence requests and provide subject-matter expertise for cross-border investigations and large-scale remediation projects.
  • Collaborate with data engineering and analytics to design extract-transform-load (ETL) feeds, data quality checks, and reporting structures required for robust AML monitoring.
  • Contribute to periodic policy reviews and the continuous improvement of the AML program, including updates to CDD/EDD procedures, risk-rating methodologies and escalation thresholds.
  • Assist in building and maintaining dashboards, metrics and management reporting for audit, senior management and regulators focusing on AML program effectiveness.
  • Participate in vendor evaluations and proof-of-concept projects for next-generation transaction monitoring, watchlist screening, entity resolution and AML automation tools.
  • Provide training and mentorship to junior investigators on investigative techniques, SAR writing, legal/regulatory context and record-keeping requirements.
  • Support the implementation and change management related to AML system upgrades, migrations and automation initiatives.
  • Aid in forensic analysis and data pulls for litigation support, internal investigations and regulatory remediation exercises.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Transaction monitoring system expertise (Actimize, NICE, FIS, SAS, Oracle Mantas, in-house platforms): alert triage, tuning and rule creation.
  • Strong knowledge of KYC/CDD/EDD processes, beneficial ownership identification, and BO/UBO verification methods.
  • Sanctions and watchlist screening proficiency (OFAC, UN, EU, HMT, domestic lists) and experience investigating true matches versus false positives.
  • SAR/STR drafting and filing experience with detailed, analytical narrative construction and evidentiary support.
  • Familiarity with BSA, AML regulations, FATF recommendations, and country-specific regulatory frameworks.
  • Experience with case management systems and investigative documentation best practices.
  • Data analysis skills: ability to query and interpret transaction datasets using SQL, Excel (pivot tables, advanced formulas), and basic scripting for data pulls.
  • Exposure to AML model validation, backtesting, and metrics used to measure detection performance (precision, recall, false positive rate).
  • Experience with PEP screening, adverse media research, open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools and commercial databases (LexisNexis, World-Check, Refinitiv).
  • Knowledge of cross-border payments, correspondent banking, trade finance, securities and virtual asset typologies.
  • Understanding of sanctions licensing, funds blocking and reporting requirements in multiple jurisdictions.
  • Experience with regulatory exam processes, evidence collection, and responding to supervisory queries or subpoenas.
  • Familiarity with machine learning or analytics-driven AML solutions and implications for rule-based monitoring.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical reasoning and investigative mindset to synthesize disparate data and build compelling SAR narratives.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills for drafting reports, interacting with regulators and briefing senior management.
  • Attention to detail and rigorous documentation standards to support legal defensibility and auditability.
  • Ability to manage competing priorities, high alert volumes and strict regulatory timelines with composure.
  • Critical thinking and problem-solving orientation to identify process gaps and recommend practical improvements.
  • Collaborative relationship-building skills to work cross-functionally with legal, operations, product and IT stakeholders.
  • Leadership potential and coaching abilities to mentor junior analysts and improve team capability.
  • Ethical judgment and discretion when handling sensitive customer information and law enforcement interactions.
  • Continuous learning mindset to stay current with evolving typologies, technologies and regulatory expectations.
  • Project management aptitude to support remediation projects, system implementations and compliance initiatives.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Criminal Justice, Law, Economics, Information Systems, or a related field; or equivalent professional experience in AML/compliance.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in relevant discipline; certifications such as CAMS (Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist), CRCM, ACAMS, or Certified Financial Crime Specialist preferred.
  • Additional training in forensic accounting, data analytics, or regulatory compliance a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Finance / Accounting
  • Criminal Justice / Law
  • Economics / Public Policy
  • Information Systems / Data Analytics
  • Risk Management / Compliance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2–5 years for analyst level; 5+ years for senior or specialized AML roles.

Preferred:

  • 3+ years of direct AML/financial crime investigation experience in banking, fintech, payments, brokerage or regulated financial services.
  • Demonstrated track record of SAR filings, sanctions screening remediation, and transaction monitoring tuning.
  • Experience handling complex, cross-border and high-risk investigations involving PEPs, shell companies, crypto or trade finance.
  • Prior interaction with regulators during examinations and possession of strong evidence-gathering and reporting skills.
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