Description

A focused course, tailored for you

AML Case Management to SAR Quality for Bank Managers

Turn your team's alert queue into defensible SAR narratives regulators accept on first review.

Your alert queue is being cleared on time, but your SAR narratives keep getting kicked back by second-line for incomplete typology linkage. The triage logic is sound. The problem is upstream: case file structure that does not carry the evidentiary thread through to the filing stage.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

Most AML teams optimise alert throughput and SAR volume, then wonder why examiner feedback keeps pointing at narrative quality. The root cause is structural. Alert disposition, customer risk re-assessment, and SAR narrative construction are treated as three separate workflows when regulators evaluate them as one chain of evidence. A manager who inherits a team with strong individual analysts but inconsistent case architecture spends weeks coaching narrative quality when the real fix is a shared case-file schema. This course builds that schema from the ground up.

What you walk away with

Build a case-file schema that carries the evidentiary thread from alert triage through to SAR narrative without manual reconstruction.
Align your CDD refresh cycle to the risk-based approach your regulator expects, with documentation that survives a targeted examination.
Write SAR narratives that link customer risk profile, transaction typology, and regulatory threshold in a structure examiners accept on first submission.
Establish STR quality metrics your second-line compliance team can present without rewriting.
Implement a correspondent banking KYC refresh cadence that satisfies FATF Recommendation 13 and EBA guidelines without creating a backlog.
Produce a risk-based approach statement for your business line that withstands ACPR or FCA challenge.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The Evidentiary Chain: What Regulators Actually Audit

FATF and EBA examiners do not audit your alert volume. They audit the chain from customer risk classification through transaction monitoring rules to SAR narrative. This module maps that chain precisely, showing what an ACPR or FCA targeted examination looks for at each link, and why gaps between your triage notes and your filing narrative are the most common deficiency finding across mid-tier bank AML functions.

Module 2. Case File Architecture: Schema Design for Defensible Output

A shared case-file schema is what transforms a team of strong individual analysts into a consistent operation. This module covers the four components every case file must carry (customer risk event, transaction pattern evidence, typology match, disposition rationale) and how to implement a schema in your case management system so SAR narrative construction becomes a structured extraction, not a creative writing exercise for whichever analyst is on shift.

Module 3. Alert Triage Standards That Feed Narrative Quality

Disposition notes written without SAR narrative in mind create a downstream reconstruction problem. This module covers how to set triage standards so the analyst recording the disposition is simultaneously building the narrative thread. Includes a worked example using a structuring typology across a correspondent account, showing how a well-written triage note becomes 80 percent of the final SAR narrative without additional research.

Module 4. Risk-Based Approach Documentation for Bank Managers

Your risk-based approach statement is the document your regulator reads before examining anything else. This module walks through the structure of a defensible RBA statement for a retail or wholesale banking business line, covering customer risk segmentation methodology, product risk classification, and the link between your inherent risk assessment and your monitoring rule set. Includes a template adapted to EBA AML guidelines and FATF Recommendation 1.

Module 5. CDD Refresh Cycles: Tying Cadence to Customer Risk

A CDD refresh backlog is almost always a scheduling problem masquerading as a capacity problem. This module covers how to set refresh cadence by customer risk tier, how to document the methodology in a way that satisfies both your internal audit function and an external examiner, and how to build an escalation path for customers whose risk profile changes between scheduled reviews. Worked example uses a private banking book with PEP concentration.

Module 6. Correspondent Banking KYC: FATF Recommendation 13 in Practice

Correspondent banking relationships carry heightened documentary expectations under FATF Recommendation 13 and current EBA guidelines. This module covers the specific KYC file components required for respondent banks, how to document senior management approval for high-risk correspondents, the minimum content for your payable-through account assessment, and how to structure your annual review so the file is examination-ready without being rebuilt from scratch each cycle.

Module 7. Typology Mapping: From Alert to Narrative in Three Steps

Most SAR narrative deficiencies trace back to missing typology linkage: the narrative describes what happened but does not explain why it matches a recognised financial crime method. This module covers the three-step typology mapping process (transaction pattern identification, FATF or Egmont typology match, narrative framing), with worked examples across trade finance layering, structuring through business accounts, and third-party money mule indicators relevant to a global transaction bank.

Module 8. STR Quality Metrics: Building a Second-Line Presentation

Second-line compliance functions need metrics that tell them whether the AML operation is working, not just whether SAR volume targets are being hit. This module covers the five quality indicators that sophisticated compliance functions track (narrative completeness rate, first-submission acceptance rate, examiner finding frequency, typology coverage breadth, CDD refresh adherence rate) and how to construct a monthly STR quality pack your second-line can take to the risk committee without editing.

Module 9. Managing Examiner Engagement: ACPR, FCA, and EBA Interactions

An AML examination reviews whether your documented methodology matches operational practice. This module covers how to prepare your team for examiner interviews, what documentation to have ready in the first 48 hours, how to respond to preliminary findings without creating additional exposure, and how to frame remediation commitments that satisfy the examiner and remain achievable within your operational constraints.

Module 10. PEP Screening Governance: Decision Records That Hold Up

PEP decisions that are correctly made but poorly documented are a recurring source of examiner findings. This module covers the governance structure for PEP screening decisions, including the three-tier classification approach (domestic, foreign, international organisation), the content requirements for a PEP acceptance decision record, enhanced due diligence minimum standards, and how to document an ongoing monitoring plan that an internal audit team can test without coming back to you for clarifications.

Module 11. Team Coaching for Consistent Output: Moving from Analyst to Manager

A manager inheriting a team with strong individuals but inconsistent output usually has a mental-model problem, not a skills problem. Each analyst carries a different implicit standard for what a complete case file looks like. This module covers how to surface those standards, how to run a case review calibration session, and how to build a team quality document new analysts absorb in their first two weeks.

Module 12. Implementation Playbook: 90-Day Rollout for Your Business Line

The hand-built implementation playbook maps the 12 module outputs to a 90-day rollout for your specific business line. It covers sequencing decisions for retail, correspondent, or specialist financial crime teams, the stakeholder conversations required in the first 30 days with second-line, internal audit, and your MLRO, and the leading indicators confirming better SAR quality before your next examination.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Alert triage standards (Module 3) solve the problem of well-intentioned disposition notes that do not carry enough information for the narrative writer.

Correspondent banking KYC (Module 6) addresses the specific documentary requirements that differ from standard CDD and regularly surprise managers moving from retail to wholesale banking.

Examiner engagement (Module 9) covers the practical preparation work that happens in the two weeks before an ACPR or FCA on-site visit, which is rarely covered in AML training materials.

Team coaching (Module 11) handles the calibration problem that every manager who has inherited an established team encounters: individual analysts who are technically competent but whose outputs are inconsistent because they are working from different implicit standards.

What you get with this course

12 written modules in the Art of Service learning environment, self-paced
Downloadable case file schema template (adaptable to your case management system)
SAR narrative framework with worked examples across structuring, trade finance layering, and PEP-linked transactions
CDD refresh cadence calculator by customer risk tier
STR quality metrics pack template (monthly second-line presentation format)
Hand-built implementation playbook tailored to your business line, delivered alongside course access

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Course access provisioned within 24 hours of purchase

Hand-built implementation playbook for your business line delivered alongside course access

90-day rollout sequence included in the playbook

Before and after

Before

SAR narratives get kicked back by second-line for incomplete typology linkage. CDD refresh cycles run on an ad-hoc schedule. STR quality metrics are assembled manually before each risk committee. Examiner preparation is reactive.

After

Case files carry the evidentiary thread from triage through filing. CDD refresh runs on a documented risk-based cadence. Second-line receives a monthly STR quality pack they present unchanged. Examiner visits start with a complete documentation set in the first 48 hours.

What happens if you do not address this

Examiner findings on SAR narrative quality and CDD refresh methodology are escalating across European banks. A finding that documents a systematic gap between your RBA and your operational practice creates remediation commitments that take 12-18 months to close and occupy management bandwidth across every subsequent examination cycle.

Who it is for

AML and KYC managers at regulated banks who own a team of analysts and are accountable for SAR filing quality, CDD refresh cycle adherence, and the risk-based approach documentation their compliance function presents to regulators. You know the technical rules. What you need is an operable system that makes your team's output consistently defensible.

Who this is NOT for. Front-line analysts in their first compliance role, or governance officers who do not manage an operational caseload. This course assumes you are already running a team and dealing with second-line challenge on filing quality.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Each module is designed to be read in 25-40 minutes. The full 12-module course completes in approximately 6-8 hours, typically spread across two to three weeks alongside an operational schedule.

Why $199 is the right number

Internal AML training programmes cover regulatory rules but rarely address case architecture or SAR narrative quality as a systems problem. External AML certifications (ACAMS, ICA) cover the theory of risk-based approaches but do not produce the operational artefacts your team needs to change output quality immediately. This course is designed to produce working templates and a documented methodology your team can adopt in the current quarter.

FAQ

Does this course cover specific jurisdictions or is it generic?

The course uses FATF recommendations as the baseline framework and draws worked examples from EBA guidelines and ACPR examination practice, making it directly applicable to European bank AML functions. The implementation playbook is hand-built for your specific business line context.

How is this different from ACAMS or ICA training?

Certifications test your knowledge of regulatory rules. This course produces the artefacts: the case file schema, the SAR narrative framework, the CDD refresh cadence documentation, the STR quality metrics pack. The goal is operational output, not a credential.

Can I use the templates directly in my team?

Yes. Every template is designed to be adopted or adapted by a working AML team. The case file schema template comes in a format that can be mapped to most case management systems without requiring IT involvement.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.