DIA Warns Against Generic Risk Templates

On 20 October 2022, the Department of Internal Affairs (an Anti-Money Laundering Supervisor for lawyers, real estate agents and accountants) provided the following warning –

"many reporting entities continue to adopt a generic template without adequately amending it to reflect the money laundering and terrorism financing risks faced by its business. Generic content relating to the ML/TF risks associated with a sector, without consideration of that reporting entity’s business, will not comply with section 57 or 58 of the AML/CFT Act."

Get Confidence with Regulatory Technology

Since 2014, AML360 has been providing New Zealand businesses with an easy to use solution for completing a ML/FT business risk assessment. It works on a simple point and click function and does not require users to be an AML/CFT compliance professional.

Meeting Regulatory Expectation

AML360 software is continuously updated to meet auditor recommendations and AML Supervisor guidelines. This ensures reporting entities have a level of regulatory certainty. In doing so, AML360’s RegTech solution offers regulatory effectiveness and importantly, it is affordable.

Should an auditor or AML Supervisor provide recommendations for enhancements, these features are added to the software at no additional costs to reporting entities. Users simply login, add additional detail, click Calculate - and the report is updated.

What makes AML360 different from a generic risk assessment?

AML360’s software measures ML/FT risk exposure that is unique to individual reporting entities. The report defines risk ratings at three levels, all of which are tailored to the specific business operations of individual reporting entities:

1. Overall inherent risk.
2. Separate risk level of the primary categories of (a) nature, size and complexity of business, (b) products and services, (c) customers / clients, (d) method of delivery, (e) geographies.
3. The risk characteristics that influence each of the primary categories are also risk rated.

The resulting business risk assessment report incorporates elements and characteristics that have been identified by AML Supervisors as increasing ML/FT risks. Each of the risk characteristics are explained in the report. Sector risks relevant to the business are also incorporated. Additionally, the AML Compliance Officer adds their own notations to ensure the report is fully informing on unique aspects of a reporting entity.

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