Common Abbreviations in AML/FinCrime Compliance

There are many abbreviations used in the area of AML/FinCrime Compliance. Some of the common ones are listed below.

ABBREVIATION	MEANING
ABC or AB&C	Anti bribery & Corruption
AFC	Anti-Financial Crime (depending on context, it could refer to same as Anti money laundering, or include reference to other financial crimes)
AML	Anti-Money Laundering
AML/CTF Act	​The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, a Commonwealth legislation
AMLCO or AMLRO	AML Compliance Officer or AML Reporting Officer. Also refer to MLRO
ASO	​Australian Sanctions Office, the Australian Sanctions regulator, part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
AUSTRAC	​Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (https://www.austrac.gov.au/), Australia's FIU promoting, supervising and enforcing the risk management and reporting obligations under the AML/CTF Act and Rules
CDD	Customer Due Diligence
CRS	Common Reporting Standards (a framework for financial institutions to report account details to tax authorities of participating countries other than US)
CTF or CFT	​Countering Terrorism Financing or Combating the Financing of Terrorism
CTR	​Currency Transaction Report or Cash Transaction Report - refer also to TTR. It is a report informing in-scope cash transactions
DBG	Designated Business Group (DBG)
DNFBP	​Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions, a cohort of businesses and professions that are not financial services businesses, but are businesses or professions that can be high risk from a ML/TF perspective
DS	​Designated Services. If you provide Designated Service in relation to businesses in scope of the AML / CTF legislation, you must have an AML/CTF compliance program
ECDD	Enhanced Customer Due Diligence
ETS	​Economic and Trade Sanctions. Sanctions, to put simply, are measures by countries / international bodies against a specific country, group, or individual to persuade them to change a particular policy or conduct. These measures can include trade barriers, tariffs, restrictions on financial transactions, asset freezes, travel bans, and other economic and political measures
FATCA	Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (a US legislation) (Click here)
FATF	Financial Action Task Force, which is a global inter-governmental organization that sets international standards and promotes measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and related threats to the integrity of the international financial system
FC	Financial Crime
FCPA	Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (a US legislation)
FCRA	Financial Crime Risk Assessment, a risk assessment methodology used by a Reporting Entity to identify, assess, and mitigate financial crime risks that it can face arising from its products and services, and considering its distribution channels, geography and customer risk
FIU	Financial Intelligence Unit, an apex national agency in FATF member countries that lead AML regulation. In Australia, AUSTRAC is the national FIU
ICAC	​Independent Commission against Corruption (a NSW, Australia corruption investigation body - https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/)
ID	Identification
IFTI	International Funds Transfer Instruction, usually a cross border movement of funds. Reporting Entities have an obligation to monitor and report IFTIs to AUSTRAC (there could be similar reporting provision in other countries to report to their FIUs)
KYC	Know Your Customer
ML	​Money Laundering
MLRO	Money Laundering Reporting Officer, a designated officer in the company in charge of the AML compliance framework and accountable for AML compliance. Also referred to as AML Compliance Officer (AMLCO) or AML Reporting Officer (AMLRO) (not to be confused with the role / title of an AML officer, which can be a junior AML department position)
NACC	National Anti-Corruption Commission, a Federal anti-corruption body to investigate charges of corruption against public officials or relating to federal matters
NPO	Non-Profit Organisation, generally charity and social causes entities. They could be a high/ higher ML/TF risk
OCDD	Ongoing Customer Due Diligence - a concept used in the context of ongoing due diligence of customers availing Designated Services, to prevent or spot ML / TF or other FC
OFAC	Office of Foreign Assets and Control (https://ofac.treasury.gov/). It is an office within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those involved in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to U.S. national security, foreign policy, or economy
PEP	Politically Exposed Person/s. A PEP is an individual who holds a prominent public position or role in a government body or international organisation, either in Australia or overseas. Examples of PEPs include Heads of State or of government, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials, senior executives of state owned corporations, important political party officials. They could be foreign or domestic PEP. PEPs include the immediate family members of such individuals (or even close associates, e.g. a business partner)
POC	Proceeds of Crime, a concept that refers to illicit money generated through money laundering or financial crimes
POCA	Proceeds of Crime Act, providing framework for investigating, seizing etc the POC
RBA	Risk based approach. FATF / AML legislation prescribes that the AML frameworks should identify and address ML and FC risks on a RBA, which means that risks with highest potential impact should be addressed first, and then make your way down
RE	Reporting Entity, an entity that provides Designated Services under the AML/CTF legislation and must have an AML/CTF compliance program
SMR	Suspicious Matter Report, which is filed with AUSTRAC (within 1 or 3 business days, depending on the type of suspicious matter) when a suspicion is formed in respect of a customer or account. This report may also be known as STR (Suspicious Transaction Reporting) or SAR (Suspicious Account Reporting) in other countries
SOF or SOW	Source of Funds, or Source of Wealth. ECDD / CDD measures may require inquiring on or verifying SOF and / or SOW of a customer and relate to their customer profile, risk and transactions
SWIFT	Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
TF	Terrorist Financing
TTR	Threshold Transaction Reporting, to be filed with AUSTRAC when $10,000 or more (or equivalent in foreign currency) is accepted from a customer in cash (this report can also be referred to as CTR in some countries)
UBO	Ultimate Beneficial Owner, being an individual/s (one or more) who or which ultimately own or control, directly or indirectly, a company or entity, by owning threshold percentage of equity shares (ie 25%), or through exercising control
UNSC	The United Nations Security Council (https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/), which issues UN Sanctions, to be implemented by UN member countries

Note: The legislations or bodies referred above are to the Australian legislations or bodies, unless otherwise mentioned or meant or inferred.