GLOSSARY
AML screening
The set of pre-transaction and ongoing checks that financial institutions run to detect money laundering and terrorist financing risk in customer relationships and payments.
AML (anti-money-laundering) screening is the set of pre-transaction and ongoing checks that financial institutions, payment providers, and obliged businesses run to detect money laundering and terrorist financing risk. It encompasses customer screening at onboarding (KYC / KYB), denied-party screening, payment screening on every transaction, and ongoing rescreening as customer profiles and lists change.
Why it matters
AML screening is the operational layer of an institution's broader AML compliance programme, mandated by FATF-aligned national laws — the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directives, the UK Money Laundering Regulations, and dozens of others. Failures attract some of the largest regulatory penalties in financial services, plus the structural cost of remediation, third-party monitorships, and reputational damage.
Effective programmes combine name- and address-matching against government and commercial lists, transaction-monitoring rules and statistical models, and a structured alert-triage workflow that produces audit-grade case files. FATF Recommendation 16 sets the global standard for the originator-and-beneficiary information that must travel with cross-border payments to enable downstream screening.
Related terms
- KYC (Know Your Customer)
- KYB (Know Your Business)
- Denied-party screening
- FATF Recommendation 16
- Sanctions screening