Specialist Preparation Program in Compliance and Financial Crime Prevention

Program facts

Study fee

Free

subjects

5

lessons

15

Estimated time

17.5 hours

Content last reviewed

23 October 2026

Access period

30 days

Study language

Arabic and English

About the program

Begin by separating a verified local rule from an international standard and an approved institutional procedure. Build an evidence-based risk worksheet, investigate customer identity and trace natural persons through ownership and control layers. In monitoring, distinguish a name alert from a confirmed identity, compare transaction patterns using matching periods and denominators, and write a fact-based memo for an authorised officer. Then design a control with a named input, output, owner and test. Select a reproducible sample, interpret alert-quality metrics within their label and population limits, and finish with an integrated dossier linking arithmetic, documents and decision routes. All cases and monetary units are fictional. Real application requires current local rules, institutional policy and appropriate authority. Completion does not grant licensure, legal status or a guaranteed regulatory outcome.

Practical relevance

Produce CDD worksheets, an ownership graph, monitoring chronology, exception record, referral memo and control retest plan. Each exercise provides fictional inputs, a worked solution and marking criteria. Transfer the method to real work only after verifying local law, policy and delegated authority.

Why this program

A single file may contain a missing control agreement, unusual payment activity and a name alert. Learn to keep those strands distinct and identify evidence that would change each decision, avoiding both unsupported accusation and premature closure of an independent signal.

What you will learn

• Perform mandate, risk and scope tasks with reviewable evidence and decision limits.
• Perform due diligence and beneficial ownership tasks with reviewable evidence and decision limits.
• Perform screening, monitoring and investigation tasks with reviewable evidence and decision limits.
• Perform controls, data and testing tasks with reviewable evidence and decision limits.
• Perform professional decision and improvement tasks with reviewable evidence and decision limits.

Who it is for

• Designed for compliance, onboarding, transaction-monitoring and name-screening analysts, and first- or second-line staff who prepare decision evidence but do not independently approve exceptions or formal reports. It suits practitioners able to read a customer file and transaction table who want practice in calculation, verification, documentation and referral using inspectable fictional cases. Applying these methods in a real institution requires current policy and locally authorised review.

Curriculum

1. Subject 1 Open for free

   Mandate, risk and scope

   The specialist first asks which authority a text has: international standard, verified local rule or approved institutional procedure. A requirement matrix links each instruction to its trigger and decision owner. Next, assess relationship risk using customer, product, channel and activity factors, with evidence for every rank and a sensitivity interval when a material fact is missing. The score prioritises work; it neither proves crime nor replaces an independent obligation. Choose a control that addresses the actual driver, with a named input, output, operator and operating test. Distinguish an ordinary evidence request from an exception requiring authorised approval. Route urgent signals promptly rather than waiting for routine scoring. Practice comparing consistent time periods, avoiding unsupported blanket exclusion and recording exactly what remains unknown.

   3 lessons · 2.5 hours

   1. Authority and requirement hierarchy 52 min
   2. Explainable risk assessment 56 min
   3. Selecting controls and escalation 50 min
2. Subject 2

   Due diligence and beneficial ownership

   Build customer due diligence from defined questions: who is the customer and representative, how was identity verified, what activity is expected, and which evidence is missing? A submitted image is not a successful verification, and company registration alone does not identify natural persons in control. Trace ownership chains, multiply path interests and separate economic shares from voting or veto rights. Resolve conflicting records rather than averaging them. For higher-risk cases, distinguish wealth accumulated over time from the funds behind a particular payment and request evidence targeted to the driver. Refresh the file when ownership or activity changes, even before a scheduled date. Preserve what was known at each decision and separate facts a specialist can document from an exception or onboarding approval reserved for an authorised owner.

   3 lessons · 3 hours

   1. Traceable customer due diligence file 1 hours
   2. Tracing ownership and control 1 hours
   3. Enhanced due diligence and refresh 58 min
3. Subject 3

   Screening, monitoring and investigation

   A name-screening alert begins an identity comparison; it is not a confirmed match. Record list provenance, version and scope, compare identifiers and distinguish an absent attribute from a conflicting one. Refer a consequential potential match promptly to an authorised team while preserving confidentiality; do not exercise unassigned freezing authority. For transactions, create a chronology and compare counts and amounts over like periods. Separate supported from unsupported items, and test both a legitimate explanation and a deviation hypothesis against evidence that could disprove each. A confidential memo distinguishes a customer's assertion from an inspected record and states whether the review covers one account or a wider relationship. Formal reporting and deadlines follow locally applicable law and authorised roles. The specialist's responsibility is a timely, accurate evidence handoff without telling the customer about a sensitive route.

   3 lessons · 3.5 hours

   1. Name-screening alert triage 58 min
   2. Investigating transaction deviation 1 hours
   3. Confidential suspicion escalation memo 1 hours
4. Subject 4

   Controls, data and testing

   Treat a control as an operation that can be tested: risk, trigger, input, owner, evidence, timing and failure route. Distinguish sound design from execution proven on the intended population. Before sampling, define the population, period and selection method; separate a confirmed exception from a record that cannot be tested. Six failures among forty selected files are a sample proportion, not a proven rate for the entire population. Trace monitoring data from source through alert and decision. Calculate precision and recall on a labelled sample containing both alerted and non-alerted cases, and keep the label 'warrants review' distinct from proven crime. Missing source data cannot be fixed merely by changing a rule threshold. Tie each finding to a plausible cause and a retest capable of distinguishing genuine repair from ticket closure.

   3 lessons · 3 hours

   1. Testable control matrix 58 min
   2. Control testing and findings 1 hours
   3. Monitoring data and quality metrics 1 hours
5. Subject 5

   Professional decision and improvement

   The final module joins decisions in a need-to-know handoff. State the case, established and unknown facts, requested decision, owner and timing; an emailed link is not proof another team accepted responsibility. For a failed control, separate present containment, repair of its cause and review of cases that passed before repair. Retest a valid case, a case that must be blocked and a recorded authorised exception, while stating exactly what was examined. In the integrated dossier, trace and calculate ownership, reconcile transaction amounts and handle a name alert independently from document gaps. Explaining one receipt does not dispose of a list alert; excluding a name match does not resolve uncertain control. Refer urgent routes at once, complete other evidence work and leave approval, formal reporting and legal freezing to authorised roles under locally applicable rules.

   3 lessons · 3.5 hours

   1. Need-to-know case handoff 58 min
   2. Remediation and verification 1 hours
   3. Integrated specialist case dossier 1.5 hours

Subjects unlock in sequence as you progress.

Strengths

• Ownership and risk calculations that expose unknown facts
• Transaction investigations with consistent denominators and evidence trails
• Controls retested on cases that can reveal failure

Evidence basis

Lessons use FATF standards and Basel, OFAC and Wolfsberg guidance within each source’s actual scope. These sources are not presented as universal local law. Named regional settings are hypothetical teaching scenarios, not legal or statistical claims about those cities.

Assessment

Assessments follow the program blueprint and may use module assessments, a final assessment, or a combination, under the approved attempt policy.

Assessment attempts: 2 per assessment, 7 days apart

The pass mark is announced before the program is published.

Certificate

The credential confirms completion and successful assessment; it does not represent professional licensure unless explicitly and lawfully stated.

Every certificate has a public verification code. Verify a certificate

Verification example: a real issued certificate

Program questions