AML risk assessments
An AML check is not a risk assessment
A check tells you whether a person appears on a list. A risk assessment is what AUSTRAC asks your firm to produce, and it is the part most tools leave you to do in a spreadsheet.
Seamlss does both, in the same place your onboarding already happens.
Book a demo See how it worksThe two jobs, and why the second one is harder
Most firms compare tools on the first column. The obligation lives in the second.
Is this person on a list?
- Politically exposed persons and sanctions, against the DFAT consolidated list
- Identity verification, source document or electronic
- Results come back in seconds
- Adverse media where your program calls for it
What is your firm’s position on this client?
- The designated service you are actually providing
- Your risk matrix, starting from the AUSTRAC standard profile and edited to match your program
- Every beneficial owner of the entity, not just one contact
- A rating, a reason, a named person who signed it, and the date it is next reviewed
A clean result is a result
Firms tell us the same thing about screening tools: everything comes back green, and after a while you start wondering whether it is running at all.
That is a fair worry and the answer is not to promise you more red flags. A screen that finds nothing has still done its job, and the thing that matters is whether you can show it ran.
So the record shows the work, not just the verdict. What was screened, when, against which list, what came back, who looked at it, and what your firm decided. Timestamped, attributed, and sitting on the client record.
If you are ever asked to prove you did the work, that is the answer, and it reads the same whether the result was clean or not.
The evidence is yours, not ours
AUSTRAC expects you to keep AML records for seven years. You should not have to trust a software company for that long.
Export anything, any time
Everything comes out of the Data Centre, in bulk or one client at a time. No request, no waiting, no export fee.
Files itself into your system
Connect SuiteFiles, SharePoint, FYI, Dropbox or Google Drive and completed documents land in the client’s folder automatically.
AML and assessment PDFsComing
Automatic filing of AML and risk assessment PDFs is coming. Today you can download all of them whenever you want.
If you have not connected a document system, your evidence trail lives only in Seamlss. Connect one, or export from the Data Centre on a schedule. That advice holds whoever you use, and it matters most if you ever change software.
Where your data sits
Seamlss runs on Microsoft Azure infrastructure in Australia.
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access is controlled by role and protected by multi factor authentication. Security is monitored continuously through Vanta, and Seamlss is independently audited and penetration tested, and is actively pursuing ISO27001 certification.
You can see the identity document before it is purged, which matters when you are the person signing off the check. What stays afterwards is the record that the check happened and what it returned.
What firms say
“We use this software for client onboarding as a firm with 900+ clients, it saves a lot of time”
Daniel Heness, Google review
“Also appreciate the updates to software for changes in regulation that inevitably occur such as Agent Linking, changes in ID verification etc.”
Lemonade Beach, Google review
Questions firms ask
More questions about your obligations: AML questions accounting firms ask.
See it on one of your own clients
The risk assessment tool is part of your plan. Start a free trial, or if you already have Seamlss it is under AML in your account.