Mastering Key Skills for Effective MLROs
Course description
Join this practical 1 day course to get Empowered as MLRO to Lead with Confidence, Challenge Effectively and Strengthen AML Governance in your organisation.
As financial crime risks continue to evolve, the role of the Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO) has become increasingly important. Regulators expect MLROs to provide effective oversight of anti-money laundering controls, ensure robust risk management, and support a strong culture of compliance across their organisations. The FCA continues to identify weaknesses in governance, customer risk assessment, transaction monitoring, and AML oversight, making effective MLRO leadership essential.
This practical one-day course provides current and aspiring MLROs with a board-level understanding of their responsibilities, regulatory obligations, and the FCA’s expectations of effective AML governance and oversight. Focusing on the MLRO’s role as a key adviser to senior management and the Board, the programme explores how to provide robust challenge, meaningful management information, and independent assurance over financial crime risks and controls. Delegates will examine regulatory expectations, lessons from enforcement actions, and emerging financial crime threats, while developing practical approaches to strengthening AML frameworks, enhancing suspicious activity reporting, and supporting informed Board decision-making and regulatory compliance.
The purpose of the course is to provide participants with a practical, operationally grounded introduction to the MLRO role, including legal duties, regulatory expectations, SAR handling, governance responsibilities, and oversight of AML systems and controls.
What will you learn
By the end of the course you will:
- Understand how to recognise Money laundering by learning to read the placement–layering–integration cycles
- Recognise commercially effective due diligence
- Understand how to effectively manage and fully understand PEPs, beneficial ownership, and sanctions screening
- Adopt a risk-based, not rule-bound approach to scoring customers, products, geographies and channels to ensure focus on the true risk facing the business
- Recognise how to investigate more quickly and escalate suspicious activity, reducing potential damage to the firm
- Understand the role of the MLRO: Personal liability, Board reporting, Record-keeping, and Horizon scanning (Continued market awareness)
- Understand the governance, reporting lines, and regulatory relationships
- Learn to build and defend a firm-wide AML training and monitoring programme
You may want to combine this programme with:
- AML & KYC
- SMCR – Senior Managers & Certification Regime
- CASS – Managing Client Asset & Money
- CRS & FATCA Compliance & Reporting
- Combatting Financial Crime in Financial Services – NEW, TBA
Register for any 2 courses at the same time and save extra £100 (in total, not per course).
Main topics covered during this training
- Fundamentals of money laundering — placement, layering, integration, and how the cycle shows up in real schemes
- Customer due diligence, PEPs, and beneficial ownership
- Sanctions screening
- Risk-based approach — scoring customers, products, geographies, and channels
- Transaction monitoring, alert handling, and escalation
- SAR writing and tipping-off rules
- The MLRO/AML Officer role — liability, governance, and board reporting
- Record-keeping and regulatory exams
- Emerging risks — virtual assets and AI-driven monitoring
Who should attend
Personnel from banks, building societies, PRA-designated investment firms, insurers, Recognised Investment Exchanges, Enhanced scope Senior Managers and Certification Regime firms, entities authorised and registered under the Payment Services Regulations and Electronic Money Regulations, including:
- Money Laundering Reporting Officers,
- Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Officers
- Financial Crime Management
- Financial Crime officers
- Compliance managers
- Compliance Officers
- Senior Managers
- Compliance Officers
- Operational Risk Managers
- Internal Auditors
- Third-Party Risk Managers
- Regulatory Affairs Managers
Mastering Key Skills for Effective MLROs Course
High-level Agenda
- The MLRO Role, Legal Basis & Personal Liability
- Regulatory Framework & Governance
- Risk-Based Approach & Business-Wide Risk Assessment
- Lunch
- Customer Due Diligence & Ongoing Monitoring
- Suspicious Activity: Recognition, Investigation, SARs
- Sanctions, Record-Keeping & Regulatory Relationships
- Case Study Workshop & Q&A, close
COURSE OUTLINE
The MLRO Role, Legal Basis & Personal Liability
Learning objectives: Understand why the role exists, what it legally requires, and what happens if it’s done badly.
- Statutory basis for the MLRO/Nominated Officer role
- Distinction between MLRO and Money Laundering Compliance Principal / Compliance Officer
- Seniority, independence, and “sufficient authority” requirements
- Personal criminal and regulatory liability. Case examples of MLRO sanctions/fines
- Reporting lines: board, senior management, and independence from business lines
- Deputy MLRO arrangements and cover requirements
Group activity: Group discussion. “What would make an MLRO’s position legally indefensible?”
Break
Regulatory Framework & Governance
Learning objectives: Recognise the regulatory landscape and internal governance structures the MLRO sits within.
- Overview of FATF standards and how they cascade into domestic law
- Key domestic legislation and regulator expectations
- Three lines of defence model and where the MLRO sits
- Annual MLRO report to the board: required content and good practice
- Regulatory relationship management: examinations, information requests, breach notifications
- Interaction with other control functions (fraud, sanctions, financial crime, data protection)
Group activity: Review a sample annual MLRO report template; identify gaps.
Risk-Based Approach & Business-Wide Risk Assessment
Learning objectives: Understand how to build and maintain a defensible Business-Wide Risk Assessment (BWRA).
- Principles of the Risk-Based Approach (RBA)
- Risk categories: customer, product/service, geographic, channel/delivery
- Inherent vs residual risk; control effectiveness scoring
- Data sources for the BWRA (transaction data, Suspicious Activity Reporting trends, audit findings, regulatory alerts)
- Linking the BWRA to Customer Due Diligence (CDD) levels, monitoring rules, and staff training intensity
- Review frequency and triggers for ad hoc reassessment
Group activity: Score a fictional firm’s exposure across the four risk categories and justify overall risk rating.
Lunch
Customer Due Diligence & Ongoing Monitoring
Learning objectives: Recognise proportionate CDD/Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) and design effective ongoing monitoring.
- Standard CDD vs Simplified Due Diligence vs EDD
- Beneficial ownership identification, verification, and complex structures
- Politically Exposed Person (EPP) identification, screening tiers, and approval requirements
- Source of funds vs source of wealth. What “good” evidence looks like
- Ongoing monitoring: transaction monitoring rules, periodic reviews, trigger events
- Common pitfalls: stale CDD, over-reliance on third-party verification, tick-box EDD
Group activity: Review a customer file and decide whether CDD is adequate; identify missing elements.
Suspicious Activity: Recognition, Investigation & SAR, reporting
Learning objectives: Understand how to run a robust internal reporting and SAR decision process.
- Red flags by sector/product (cash intensity, structuring, third-party payments, trade-based laundering indicators)
- Internal Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) process: from staff report to MLRO decision
- Reasonable grounds to suspect the legal threshold and how to document reasoning
- Timeframes for internal escalation and external SAR filing
- Tipping-off offence and managing “Defence Against Money Laundering” (DAML) requests / consent regimes
- Record-keeping standards for SAR decisions, including decisions NOT to report
- 3 categories of reporting
Group activity: Case study: participants review a suspicious transaction narrative, decide whether to file, and draft the reasoning.
Break
Sanctions, Record-Keeping & Regulatory Relationships
Learning objectives: Understand adjacent obligations that typically sit with or near the MLRO.
- Sanctions screening obligations and how they interact with AML processes
- Record-keeping requirements: retention periods, format, accessibility for regulators/law enforcement
- Law enforcement requests: production orders, information requests, confidentiality
- Whistleblowing channels and their relationship to the SAR process
- Culture and “tone from the top. “The MLRO’s role in influencing firm-wide behaviour”
Case Study Workshop, Q&A & Close
Learning objectives: Validate and enhance learnings from the day
Format: Delegates work through an integrated scenario combining a higher-risk customer, an unusual transaction pattern, and a governance failure. Delegates present:
- Their risk rating and CDD decision
- Whether/when a SAR should be filed
- What board reporting should say
- What control failure needs remediation
Close: Recap of key takeaways, signposting to further reading (regulator guidance, industry body resources), feedback form, certificates of attendance.
Trainer
The Course Director is a highly experienced regulatory consultant, and Money Laundering Reporting Officer for two investment management and advisory firms. A compliance and risk director, who in addition, has undertaken a number of Interim Head of Risk & Compliance roles associated with outsourcing, financial crime, monitoring and assurance projects.
Interim roles have included FCA-approved head of Risk & Compliance and Money Laundering Reporting Officer positions for Insurance, Investment, Financial Technology and Consumer Credit firms. Further supported by a breadth of experience in Insurance, Investments, Consumer credit, Fund Management and Private Wealth Management.
Successfully led a number of companies through regulatory authorisation applications, regulatory change of control applications and variation of regulatory permissions. Undertaken senior Risk & Compliance interim consultant roles that have required strategic assessments and restructuring. Led and continues to lead FCA S166 reviews as well as acting as FCA Liaison for firms where support has been needed.
FAQ
We offer banking and finance courses as well as soft skills and business management training. You can either attend an open public course in London or Dubai or arrange customised in-house training to be delivered in any of your offices worldwide.
Most of our public courses are run over 2 full days. Some programmes are offered as a 1 or 3 day training.
In-house training is tailored to client’s requirements and can be organised over 1 day, 2-3 weeks or longer.
Public courses are organised mainly in London and Dubai. Occasionally we organise courses in other centres like Paris or New York. Check our public course calendar for the current list of programmes. We use a range of training venues, all in the centre of the cities and with excellent transport links to the airports and train stations.
In London we use venues in the centre (near Oxford Circus station or in Mayfair) or in the City (near Liverpool Street or Moorgate stations).
In Dubai our courses are organised in one of 4-5* hotels in the Deira district. Once you register we will send you detailed information together with accommodation options if required.
Our in-house courses can be delivered anywhere in the world. We work with over 25 trainers worldwide. Contact us do discuss your requirements. Check our list of available programmes.
Our courses are run in central locations from 9 a.m until 5-5.30 p.m. There are 2 coffee breaks and a lunch break. Lunch is always provided in the venue.
Dress code is smart casual.
All our programmes are taught by senior specialists who have spent many years in their respective sectors, working as senior managers and head of departments, so they understand very well the market and the challenges you are facing.
The experience of our trainers allows us to create very practical programmes, focused on current market trends and challenges. You can be sure that you will gain the knowledge which can be instantly applied in your workplace after the course. You will be analysing real life case studies, take part in group exercises and discussions as well as role plays, whenever applicable.
We want our courses to be as practical and interactive as possible so we limit the number of participants in order to optimise your time with the trainer and allow you to ask questions which are important for you.
In order to understand your requirements and expectations, we will send you a pre-course questionnaire.
You will also receive post-course support so if you have any questions after you left the training, you are welcome to contact us.
There are 2 easy ways to register:
- Go to the course of your choice and click Register Now button to fill the registration page
- Email us to enquiry@eurekafinancial.com
After you register, we will send you registration confirmation and an invoice so you can arrange the payment. Please note that your place is not confirmed until we receive it.
If you register within Early Bird discount period, there’s limited time to arrange the payment in order to be eligible for the discount. You will find all the details on the invoice.
We don’t advise to make any travel and hotel arrangements until you receive full course confirmation from us.
We will send you venue and course details as soon as possible but most likely about 3-4 weeks prior to the course commencement.
You can pay by:
- Making a bank transfer
- Debit/credit card
- Cheque payable to Eureka Financial Ltd. - only within UK
Just mark preferred paying option on the registration form. Whichever form of payment you choose we will always send you an invoice.
If you pay by card, a 2.2% processing fee will be added. We will send you authorisation form so you can give us your card details.
Included in the price of a public course are:
- Course tutorial
- Take away course materials
- Course Certificate
- Lunch on the days of the training as well as drinks and snacks throughout the course
The price doesn’t include accommodation, flights, transfers and any additional costs outside of the training venue.
Yes, we always offer Early Bird discount, so the sooner you register the more savings you can make. We also offer group discounts and if you register for 2 or more programmes at the same time.
If you are a full time student or unemployed, we offer a 25% discount of the full price of the training. Student ID or unemployment status confirmation is required to claim this discount.
If you attend one of our courses you will be entitled to a special discount for a year after the last course you attend with us. Also, if you have attended and recommended us to a friend, both you and your friend will receive a special discount. You will receive more information about it after you attend the course.
See our Customer Loyalty Discounts page for more details.
All our courses based in the UK are subject to the VAT charge of 20%. This fee is irrespective of the country of residence of the delegates.
You can, however, claim the VAT back by contacting UK tax office - HMRC, and filling the relevant form, as long as you comply with the following rules:
For Delegates coming from the EU countries
If you represent a registered business in another EU country, you can use the Refund Scheme to reclaim VAT you pay in the UK as long as all of the following apply:
- You're not registered for VAT in the UK and don't have to, or can't be, registered here
- You don't have a place of business or a residence in the UK
- You don't make any supplies in the UK
You can find some more information here. In order to claim the VAT you have to fill Form 65.
For the Delegates from Non EU countries
If you represent a registered business in a non-EU country, you can use the Refund Scheme to reclaim VAT you pay in the UK as long as all of the following apply:
- You're not registered for VAT in the UK and don't have to, or can't be, registered here
- You don't have a place of business or a residence in the EU
- You can only use the Refund Scheme if your own country operates a similar scheme and makes it available to UK businesses. If your country has its own Refund Scheme but doesn't let UK businesses use it, you can't claim under the UK Refund Scheme.
- You don't make any supplies in the UK
If the following rules apply to you, please fill the 65A form and send it to HMRC.
Webinars
You can cancel your participation up to a month before the course and receive a refund minus 10% of the full course value. Between 2-4 weeks before the course you will be charged 50% cancellation fee and if you cancel less than 2 weeks before the course you can only offer your place to a colleague. Up to 2 weeks before the course you can reregister for another edition for 10% reregistration fee if there is another webinar offered or you can rebook for a course in London by paying the difference in price plus 10% reregistration fee.
Classroom Courses
If there is any official travel restriction or difficulty related to the COVID pandemic around the time of the course we will convert the training into a webinar or offer to attend the next classroom edition at no extra cost.
If you are unable to attend the course, you can either send a replacement at no extra charge or, up to 10 days before the training, you can transfer your booking to another edition within the next 6 months paying administrative fee of 20% of the full course price. For any cancellation requests received between 11 days and 4 weeks from the course we offer 50% refund or reregistration to another edition for 25% of the value of the booking. For any cancellation requests received more than 4 weeks before the course date we will offer a refund less an administration fee of 10% of the full course price.
Cancellations must be made in writing (letter or email) and reach our office four weeks prior to the course date. We regret that only limited refunds can be given after this period as per points above. Non-attendance without any notification will be charged at full rate. Your place on a course is not guaranteed until we receive the payment. All payments must be made in full before the course date.
All our trainers have been working for many years in their respective sectors before they begun to teach so they bring a wealth of practical experience to the classroom.
Most of them used to work for 15 or more years in the financial sector and corporate world, and were holding positions of Directors, VP and Senior Managers. Some of them have published books and have written articles for specialised magazines and newspapers including FT, The Independent, The Times etc. You can find detailed biography of each trainer on the page of the course you want to register for.
Yes, you will receive a Certificate of Attendance at the end of the course you attend.
If you have to apply for a Visa to attend a course in the UK, we will issue a letter to support your application. The letter will be issued only after the payment for the course has been made.
It is delegate’s responsibility to obtain a Visa and failure to do so will not make the participant exempt from the cancellation policy.
Anyone suspected of applying for a training course simply to gain a Visa letter will be reported to their embassy.
We will need the following information to issue an invitation letter:
- Full name as it appears on your passport
- Date of birth
- Passport number
- Passport issue date
- Passport expiry date
10 Dec 2026, London / Virtual
Register by 01 Sep to save £200
Early bird price £795 + VAT
Regular price £995 + VAT
5% discount for 2 and 10% for 3 people.
This topic can be arranged on in-house basis. If you have a group of 4 or more we can customise it and deliver in any location worldwide. Contact us to discuss your requirements
