Four steps to improve your AML compliance programme
In this article, we outline four practical steps every financial institution can take to strengthen its AML compliance programme and prepare for the next wave of regulatory change.
Despite increasing compliance efforts, money laundering remains the most frequent financial crime, with European countries like the United Kingdom, Austria, and the Netherlands leading in money laundering incidents.
In addition, compliance failures account for 10% of all financial crime incidents worldwide.
Recent reports unveil banks' shortcomings in customer due diligence. Criminals use banks to finance crime. Companies worldwide need to step up their efforts to combat financial crime.
What is required for companies to close the gaps in their compliance work and thus contribute to more effective work against financial crime?
In this article, we outline four practical steps every financial institution can take to strengthen its AML compliance programme and prepare for the next wave of regulatory change.
Why strengthening your AML programme matters
A strong AML framework safeguards far more than compliance. It protects your organisation’s reputation, operational integrity, and role in the wider financial ecosystem.
Key reasons to act now include:
- Regulatory pressure: EU supervision will become more direct, with heavier fines for poor risk management.
- Operational risk: Weak or outdated controls leave exploitable gaps in defences.
- Reputational impact: Compliance failures erode the trust of customers, partners, and investors.
- Societal harm: Financial crime enables organised crime, corruption, and terrorism.
Strengthening your AML programme is not only about meeting regulatory expectations — it’s about protecting your business, your clients, and society at large.
Four steps to a stronger AML compliance programme
A modern AML framework is built on data quality, transparency, expertise, and technology. These four steps form the foundation of sustainable compliance.
1. Obtain better data
Effective compliance starts with reliable information. Ensure that customer data is accurate, complete, and consistently maintained.
Use automated validation tools to cross-check information across multiple systems and detect discrepancies early.
The better your data, the stronger and more defensible your AML processes become.
2. Establish transparent processes and collaboration
Strong AML programmes depend on structure and communication.
Adopt a risk-based approach aligned with your organisation’s business model and customer base.
Encourage collaboration among departments - compliance, operations, IT, and business units - to share insights and strengthen oversight.
Multi-level approvals and clear escalation paths reduce blind spots and ensure accountability.
3. Build a holistic skillset
AML today is multidisciplinary. Teams need expertise that spans law, technology, data analytics, behavioural science, and finance.
Encourage continuous training and professional development so staff can adapt to new threats and regulatory updates.
When compliance teams understand both risk and business context, they can make faster, better-informed decisions.
4. Implement advanced technologies for customer knowledge
Go beyond traditional onboarding. Use dynamic questionnaires, ongoing transaction monitoring, and daily PEP and sanctions screening to maintain up-to-date customer risk profiles.
Automation and analytics can differentiate normal behaviour from suspicious patterns, improving both compliance efficiency and the customer experience.
When these steps work together, compliance becomes an active, evolving process that strengthens resilience and supports growth.
Case example: from manual checks to proactive compliance
A leading Nordic mortgage provider grew rapidly, but their previous AML solution fell short of keeping up with the large data volumes. Because of this, too much time and money were spent on manual AML assessments.
After the company integrated Trapets Transaction Monitoring for ongoing transaction monitoring and behaviour analysis, they:
- Increased the quality of the compliance work.
- Saved time for the team to dedicate to strategic initiatives.
- Met the ethical standards of its institution.
- Improved relationships with regulators and customers.
The transformation allowed the institution to satisfy regulators, reassure customers, and build a scalable compliance model fit for future growth. Read more about the case here.
How Trapets supports AML compliance
Trapets helps financial institutions turn AML compliance into a strategic strength. Our platform combines automation, analytics, and expert-driven workflows to simplify complex processes and maintain full audit readiness.
With Trapets, institutions can:
- Identify potential financial crime with daily monitoring
- Get risk insights based on customer data and transaction activity
- Easily adjust rules and scenarios to match risk strategy, respond to market changes, and reflect customer behaviour.
- Simplify processes by combining monitoring tools and uncovering patterns that could point to fraud or money laundering
The road ahead
The launch of the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) marks a new era for compliance across Europe. Regulators will expect firms to demonstrate continuous improvement: refining risk assessments, data quality, and monitoring systems year after year.
Firms that act early will build a lasting advantage: stronger governance, improved operational efficiency, and greater customer trust. Those that wait risk costly remediation and regulatory intervention.
The future of AML belongs to institutions that see compliance as a living, learning system that evolves alongside the risks it is built to manage.
Act now
A strong AML programme is the foundation of a secure, sustainable business. Strengthen your defences today and prepare for the new regulatory landscape ahead. Improve your AML compliance programme with Trapets. Book a demo today.