The most important regulatory organizations on a global level are the United Nations and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is the global money laundering and terrorist financing 'watchdog'. Their policies and recommendations are adopted by a wide range of countries (more than 200) as a standard and framework for their national regulations.

Besides those global organizations there are also regulators and laws on national levels which, depending on your market, could be relevant for your business. Some of the most relevant organizations in terms of international trade are for example the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the US or the European Commission in the EU. For more information on global and national regulations see our blog.

Global AML & KYC regulations are a complicated field to navigate especially for small and midsize businesses (SMB). Not only the complexity of the regulations itself make it difficult but often there are regulations from multiple countries or organizations to obey.

While the financial industry and other ‘high risk industries’ such as real estate have been required for a long time to have KYC processes in place, many other industries only now face stricter regulations due to global widespread of KYC and AML compliance requirements.

In general all businesses are required to adopt compliance programs and for example check their customers against Sanctions and PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) lists to understand the risk in doing business with their clients.

The risk for non-compliance with AML, KYC and Sanctions regulations includes high fines and penalties (see here our blog post about the cost of neglecting AML compliance), getting your business or yourself on a sanctions or watch list and/or could even involve prison sentences for executives and officers.