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The Big Four AML Engagement Lead Playbook

$198.00
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What is the The Big Four AML Engagement Lead course about?

Run the FinCrime engagement so the client's monitoring tuning, KYC refresh, and SAR backlog clear the next regulator visit. The client's MLRO asked for a scope memo that names the four artefacts the regulator already flagged. Your engagement template names ten generic ones. Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course?

An AML engagement lead at a Big Four professional services firm walks into a client whose monitoring scenarios have not been retuned since the core banking upgrade, whose KYC refresh population is two quarters behind, and whose SAR backlog is on the regulator's list. The internal engagement template reads as a broad financial crime review, the partner wants a clean scope memo.

What do you take away from the The Big Four AML Engagement Lead course?

Write an AML engagement scope memo the client's MLRO will counter-sign without rewriting it. Sit beside a monitoring analyst and retune a transaction monitoring scenario without breaking the model validation file. Clear a SAR ageing backlog in a way the regulator can verify against the bank's own filings record. Run the KYC refresh population estimate so the second line knows what is.

What you get with this course?

12 written modules covering scope, fieldwork, findings, audit committee, and renewal. Downloadable scope memo template the MLRO will counter-sign. Downloadable SAR ageing remediation tracker for the regulator meeting. Downloadable KYC refresh population estimator with worked numbers for retail, wealth, and correspondent banking. Downloadable audit committee read-pack template. Worked monitoring tuning example with the alert-volume and SAR-yield math written out. Hand-built implementation playbook.

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

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned. The hand-built implementation playbook is delivered alongside it, written around the specific client situation you describe at signup. All 12 written modules and downloadable templates are available immediately. Email support for the first 30 days while you are running the engagement.

What does the The Big Four AML Engagement Lead cover on before and after?

The internal engagement template covers everything and lands nothing. The MLRO rewrites the scope memo, the monitoring analyst pushes back on the tuning, the SAR backlog stays where it was, and the audit committee read pack still needs the partner to talk over it. The scope memo lands counter-signed in the first week. The monitoring tuning is in the model validation file.

What happens if you do not address this?

The next regulator visit is the one that decides whether the bank gets a public censure or a quiet remediation plan. An engagement that runs on the generic internal template tends to land the public censure, the client loses confidence in the engagement team, and the renewal goes to a competitor practice. The work is the same either way, only the artefacts.

Who it is for?

Senior manager, director, or partner-track lead inside a Big Four or professional services financial crime practice. Runs anti-money-laundering engagements for retail banks, wealth managers, correspondent banking books, payments firms, or insurance carriers. Has a CAMS or equivalent qualification, has sat through a regulator visit as the lead consultant, and is now expected to write scope memos that the client's MLRO will counter-sign.

Closely related courses: The Big Four Assurance Transformation Lead Playbook, The Big Four Assurance Associate Workpaper Playbook, The Big Four Audit Senior Associate Controls Testing, The Big Four Associate's Controls-Testing Field Manual.

More answers: what you get with every course, refund policy, all help answers.

A focused course, tailored for you

The Big Four AML Engagement Lead Playbook

Run the FinCrime engagement so the client's monitoring tuning, KYC refresh, and SAR backlog clear the next regulator visit.

The client's MLRO asked for a scope memo that names the four artefacts the regulator already flagged. Your engagement template names ten generic ones.

$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

An AML engagement lead at a Big Four professional services firm walks into a client whose monitoring scenarios have not been retuned since the core banking upgrade, whose KYC refresh population is two quarters behind, and whose SAR backlog is on the regulator's list. The internal engagement template reads as a broad financial crime review, the partner wants a clean scope memo by Friday, and the MLRO will not counter-sign anything that does not name the four artefacts they already know are weak. The work is not to produce another maturity heat map. It is to walk into the monitoring team, sit with the analyst retuning the scenario, walk the SAR ageing report into the regulator meeting, and write up the findings so the audit committee can read them without the partner re-explaining. The playbook is the muscle memory for doing that engagement cleanly so the next regulator visit lands well and the client renews the work.

What you walk away with

  • Write an AML engagement scope memo the client's MLRO will counter-sign without rewriting it.
  • Sit beside a monitoring analyst and retune a transaction monitoring scenario without breaking the model validation file.
  • Clear a SAR ageing backlog in a way the regulator can verify against the bank's own filings record.
  • Run the KYC refresh population estimate so the second line knows what is achievable before the regulator deadline.
  • Package engagement findings for the client's audit committee so the partner does not have to re-explain them in the room.

The 12 modules

Module 1. Reading the client's last regulator letter before the scoping call
The regulator's most recent supervisory letter or thematic review report is the only document that tells you what the engagement actually has to clear. This module walks through how to read it the night before the scoping call, identify the four or five specific findings the MLRO is being held to, and arrive at the meeting able to name those findings before the client does. Covers UK FCA, US OCC and FinCEN, Australian AUSTRAC, and EU AMLA letter patterns.
Module 2. Writing the scope memo the MLRO will counter-sign
The internal engagement template is too broad. The MLRO needs a scope memo naming the specific artefacts the regulator already flagged, with deliverable dates matching the bank's remediation plan. This module gives a one-page scope memo structure, the four sections the MLRO reads in order, and the two clauses required before legal will sign. Includes a worked memo for a retail bank SAR engagement.
Module 3. Sitting next to the monitoring analyst
Transaction monitoring tuning happens at the analyst's screen, not in the scope document. This module walks through what to ask the monitoring analyst in the first hour, how to read the alert volume report, where the false positive rate is hiding the missed SARs, and how to talk to the analyst about a scenario rewrite without making them defensive. Worked example: a retail bank cash deposit structuring scenario that fires 12,000 alerts a month and yields four SARs.
Module 4. The SAR ageing report and the regulator meeting
The SAR backlog is the artefact the regulator already asked about. This module covers how to read the SAR ageing report the FIU produces internally, how to walk it into the regulator meeting, what the regulator wants to hear about ageing buckets over 30, 60, and 90 days, and how to talk about disclosure quality without overcommitting the bank. Includes the one-page remediation tracker the MLRO will hand over.
Module 5. KYC refresh population estimate
The second line cannot finish the KYC refresh in time because nobody has run a clean population estimate. This module walks through how to size the refresh population from the customer master file, how to segment it into enhanced-due-diligence and standard buckets, how to estimate per-case effort, and how to convert that into a credible plan the bank can show the regulator. Worked example: a mid-size retail bank with 1.4 million customers and a 24-month overdue refresh.
Module 6. Working with the model validation file
If the monitoring scenarios get retuned without updating the model validation file, the second line will refuse to sign and the bank's model risk policy will block deployment. This module covers what the validation file actually contains, what changes when a scenario threshold moves, how to write the change memo the model risk team will accept, and how to sequence the validation so the new scenario can go live before the regulator's deadline.
Module 7. Correspondent banking and wealth management engagement variants
An AML engagement at a correspondent banking book reads differently from a retail bank engagement, and a wealth management private bank reads differently again. This module covers the three variants, what the regulator cares about in each, what the second-line team owns in each, and how to scope the engagement so the right risk lens lands first. Worked examples: a correspondent banking de-risking review and a wealth management source-of-wealth refresh.
Module 8. Sanctions screening at the engagement border
Sanctions screening is a separate program but always shows up at the edge of an AML engagement, especially when the client uses one screening vendor across customer onboarding and payment filtering. This module covers what to look at when sanctions findings touch the AML work, how to scope sanctions out when it is being handled separately, and how to flag a sanctions weakness without taking on work you cannot deliver.
Module 9. The interview list and the client's first line
Engagement fieldwork lives or dies on the interview list. This module covers the eleven interviews that have to happen in the first two weeks (FIU lead, monitoring lead, KYC lead, second-line FinCrime, MLRO, the relationship managers in the highest-risk segment, internal audit lead, IT data owner, model risk lead), what to ask each one, and how to structure the notes so the engagement working file builds itself.
Module 10. Writing the findings without overcommitting the bank
Findings have to be written so the bank can act on them and the regulator can recognise them, without committing the bank to a remediation it cannot afford. This module covers how to write a finding, how to phrase the recommendation so the second line and the FIU lead can both sign it, and how to keep the partner from rewriting it on the way to the audit committee. Worked examples: SAR backlog, monitoring tuning, KYC refresh, and source-of-wealth findings.
Module 11. Packaging findings for the audit committee
The audit committee read pack is a different document from the engagement findings memo. This module covers the one-pager the audit committee actually reads, how to translate the engagement findings into board language without losing the regulator's wording, what the committee chair will ask, and how to seat the partner in the room so the committee leaves with a clear next-quarter ask. Includes a one-page audit committee read-pack template.
Module 12. The renewal conversation and the next engagement
A clean engagement that lands well with the regulator and the audit committee is the renewal. This module covers writing the closing memo so the next engagement is implied (model risk follow-up, fraud-AML convergence, the de-risking review), how to talk to the client about phasing, and how to bring the partner into the renewal so the engagement becomes a multi-year book of work.

How this addresses your situation

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

Scope and scoping (modules 1, 2, 7).
Fieldwork and the artefacts that decide the engagement (modules 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9).
Findings, packaging, and audit committee (modules 10, 11).
Renewal and the next engagement (module 12).

What you get with this course

  • 12 written modules covering scope, fieldwork, findings, audit committee, and renewal.
  • Downloadable scope memo template the MLRO will counter-sign.
  • Downloadable SAR ageing remediation tracker for the regulator meeting.
  • Downloadable KYC refresh population estimator with worked numbers for retail, wealth, and correspondent banking.
  • Downloadable audit committee read-pack template.
  • Worked monitoring tuning example with the alert-volume and SAR-yield math written out.
  • Hand-built implementation playbook for the specific client situation the buyer is walking into.

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

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned.

The hand-built implementation playbook is delivered alongside it, written around the specific client situation you describe at signup.

All 12 written modules and downloadable templates are available immediately.

Email support for the first 30 days while you are running the engagement.

Before and after

Before

The internal engagement template covers everything and lands nothing. The MLRO rewrites the scope memo, the monitoring analyst pushes back on the tuning, the SAR backlog stays where it was, and the audit committee read pack still needs the partner to talk over it.

After

The scope memo lands counter-signed in the first week. The monitoring tuning is in the model validation file by the end of the engagement. The SAR ageing tracker is ready for the regulator. The audit committee reads the one-pager and the partner only has to answer questions.

What happens if you do not address this

The next regulator visit is the one that decides whether the bank gets a public censure or a quiet remediation plan. An engagement that runs on the generic internal template tends to land the public censure, the client loses confidence in the engagement team, and the renewal goes to a competitor practice. The work is the same either way, only the artefacts are different.

Who it is for

Senior manager, director, or partner-track lead inside a Big Four or professional services financial crime practice. Runs anti-money-laundering engagements for retail banks, wealth managers, correspondent banking books, payments firms, or insurance carriers. Has a CAMS or equivalent qualification, has sat through a regulator visit as the lead consultant, and is now expected to write scope memos that the client's MLRO will counter-sign without rewriting.

Who this is NOT for. Not for first-line AML analysts at a single bank, not for compliance officers who only run the in-house FinCrime team, and not for senior leaders who only review heat maps. This is for the engagement lead who has to write the scope, sit with the client's monitoring team, and walk findings into the audit committee.

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. About 9 to 11 hours of reading and 4 to 6 hours of template work, paced over a single engagement scoping and first-fieldwork cycle. Most buyers work through the modules in the order the engagement needs them rather than front-to-back.

Why $199 is the right number

Internal Big Four training is calibrated to the firm's methodology and rarely names specific artefacts at the level the regulator is checking. The CAMS certification is foundational and assumes you are inside a single financial institution. Vendor white papers focus on the vendor's tool. This playbook is calibrated to the practice-lead seat: scope memo, fieldwork artefacts, findings, audit committee, renewal.

FAQ

Does this assume a particular jurisdiction?
No. Worked examples draw on UK FCA, US OCC and FinCEN, Australian AUSTRAC, and EU AMLA letter patterns. The artefacts (scope memo, SAR ageing tracker, KYC refresh estimator, audit committee read pack) are jurisdiction-agnostic and the playbook is adjusted at delivery to the buyer's actual client jurisdiction.
Does it cover sanctions and fraud as well as AML?
Sanctions is covered where it touches the AML engagement border (module 8). Fraud-AML convergence is named in the renewal module as the next engagement. The core focus is the AML engagement scope, fieldwork, and findings.
Will it work for an engagement lead at a Tier 2 or boutique practice, not just a Big Four firm?
Yes. The artefacts and the practice-lead seat are the same. The only difference is the partner sign-off rhythm, which the playbook adjusts in the per-buyer implementation playbook.
Is there a refund if it does not fit my engagement?
Yes. 30-day money-back if the playbook does not match the engagement you describe at signup.

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.

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