Official government lists of persons and entities subject to restrictive or comprehensive measures under international and domestic sanctions regimes. These lists are updated regularly to address the ever-changing sanctions landscape, and financial institutions and regulated license companies must check against this list to avoid conducting business with sanctioned individuals or entities.

Automated Screening Tool (AST): See Automated Screening Tools (ASTs)

Comprises risk management and compliance functions to assist in developing and monitoring the first line of defence controls. Enables the identification of emerging risks in the daily operation of the business by providing AML and CFT compliance and oversight in the form of frameworks, policies, tools, and techniques to support risk and compliance reporting to senior management.

A (registered regulated) licensed legal entity, such as a company, that utilizes corporate legal data provided by another party to perform services on their behalf.

A person or company transfers ownership of their assets to trustees by means of a trust deed, where the trustees have some discretion as to the investment and distribution of the trust’s assets. The deed may be accompanied by a non-legally binding letter stating what the settlor wishes to do with the assets.

Divesting is the process of reducing the exposure a natural person or legal person has to an asset to achieve specific financial and social goals through selling the asset entirely or part closure of the position, in which a sanctions target sells assets or equity to close associates or other affiliated persons. These include friends, colleagues, subordinates, business partners, and family members. Similar to using an isolation company, the idea is that the sanctions target no longer appears to “own” the assets or shares in a company. However, the target continues to influence or control the asset or the company’s operations.

A company that has been incorporated months or years in advance, typically by a law firm or accounting firm, and then placed “on the shelf” until needed. Investors may use these shelf companies, also known as “aged” companies, to acquire a business with a clean and established operational history.

A shell bank is a domestic or foreign bank with no physical address or location in the country where it is incorporated.

SDD is a component of customer due diligence (CDD) that applies a less rigorous approach to specific low-risk customers and transactions. It’s a risk-based method that allows a legal person or natural person to streamline their due diligence processes without compromising the integrity and objectives of AML and CTF measures.

It is a type of fraud where the perpetrator uses deception to manipulate individuals into divulging personal, sensitive, and confidential information, then uses it for fraud. Common types of social engineering scams are baiting, scareware, quid pro quo, and multiple phishing scams.