Meet AML Expectations Across the Precious Metals Supply Chain
Gold and silver trades are high-risk and tightly regulated. AML Watcher gives you the visibility to detect TBML early and stay ahead of compliance requirements.
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Cash-Heavy, High-Value and Globally Traded By Design
The same properties that make precious metals attractive as stores of value portability, anonymity, universal acceptance make them a first choice for money launderers, sanctions evaders and terrorist financiers. FATF designates precious metals dealers as DNFBPs with AML obligations equivalent to those of banks.
Cash Is Still the Primary Medium
Many precious metals transactions are still cash-based, increasing exposure to structuring, threshold avoidance, and anonymous buyers. AML Watcher helps you identify high-risk customers early, strengthen due diligence, and stay compliant.
Easy to Move, Hard to Trace
Physical gold is widely used to move value across borders and has featured in FATF case studies on sanctions evasion. Its high value, portability, and universal acceptance make it difficult to trace using systems designed for digital payments.
Mandatory Risk-Based Approach
FATF Recommendation 22 calls for a documented, risk-based AML approach covering high-risk clients, countries, sanctions, and PEP changes. Static onboarding and threshold checks no longer meet regulatory standards.
Gaps That Expose The Entire Value Chain
Precious metals businesses relying on periodic checks, manual screening or threshold-triggered reviews are not meeting the risk-based approach now required by FATF and national AML regulators.
One-Time Onboarding That Goes Stale
A customer who was clean at onboarding may be sanctioned, PEP-designated or subject to adverse media six months later. Without ongoing monitoring, that change goes undetected, accumulating regulatory liability until the next supervisory examination reveals the gap.
No Visibility Into Where the Metal Comes From
Refiners and dealers cannot assess upstream provenance through watchlist checks alone. Adverse media screening in the language of the source country French for West Africa, Arabic for the Gulf, Spanish for Latin America is essential for supply chain due diligence that satisfies the OECD Annex II standard.
PEP Screening That Stops at Level 2
Most legacy systems identify heads of state and senior ministers but miss Level 3 and 4 PEPs, regional officials, state enterprise executives, local councillors. Precious metals are routinely used by mid-tier politically exposed persons to move wealth outside official channels, and standard screening does not catch them.
False Positive Rates That Make Screening Unsustainable
High-volume dealers and online platforms cannot operate if every common name generates multiple alerts that require manual review. Without AI-assisted triage, compliance teams either clear alerts without proper review or throttle screening, both of which create regulatory exposure of a different kind.
AML Screening Calibrated to Each Segment of the Precious Metals Industry
Each part of the precious metals value chain has a distinct risk exposure and a distinct set of AML obligations. AML Watcher is configured to address all of them, with the right data, the right screening depth and the right workflow for each.
Know Who You're Selling To In Real Time
Bullion and coin traders face high volumes of cash transactions and strict compliance requirements. AML Watcher helps you verify customers, screen against global watchlists, and identify hidden risk patterns.
- Real-time sanctions screening across OFAC SDN, EU, UN and 215+ national regimes
- Transaction pattern monitoring, structuring, threshold avoidance, repeat cash buyers
- TruRisk AI eliminates false positives from common names without compromising genuine flags
Complete Customer Due Diligence in Seconds at POS
High-value jewellery retailers are classified as DNFBPs under FATF Recommendation 22 and must meet strict AML requirements. AML Watcher enables instant customer due diligence at the point of sale, including identity, PEP and sanctions checks, so you stay compliant and audit-ready.
- Instant PEP screening including all four FATF levels and Relatives and Close Associates
- Adverse media screening across 50,000+ sources in 80+ languages
- Biometric face-matching for identity confirmation at point of sale
Screen Your Supply Chain, Not Just Your Customers
Refiners sit at the gateway between mining and the global metals market and carry responsibility for supply chain due diligence. AML Watcher helps verify provenance, screen suppliers for sanctions and adverse media, and ensure compliance across jurisdictions.
- Supplier sanctions screening across OFAC, EU, UN and 200+ national regimes
- Adverse media in 80+ languages, French, Arabic, Swahili for African supply chains
- Country-level risk classification aligned with FATF and Basel AML Index
The Highest-Risk Segment and the Most Overlooked
Scrap and secondary metal dealers face high exposure to financial crime, including stolen goods and structured cash transactions. AML Watcher helps you screen sellers, identify suspicious patterns, and meet growing regulatory expectations.
- Seller screening against sanctions, PEP lists and criminal watchlists at point of purchase
- Cumulative transaction monitoring, flagging repeat sellers and rolling cash thresholds
- Suspicious indicator checklists aligned with known stolen-goods-to-cash typologies
Screen at Scale Without Slowing Down Onboarding
Digital gold platforms face high onboarding volumes, cross-border users, and complex conversion flows that increase AML risk. AML Watcher enables scalable screening, ongoing monitoring, and risk scoring without disrupting customer experience.
- Batch screening for high-volume onboarding, screen thousands of users simultaneously
- Customisable risk-scoring engine by country, PEP status, SDN inclusion and transaction behaviour
- Ongoing monitoring with real-time alerts on sanctions, PEP status and adverse media changes
The Coverage Regulators Expect At a Price You Can Sustain.
AML Watcher's in-house database built by hundreds of researchers over a decade delivers the data depth FATF Recommendation 22 demands at up to 50% lower cost than legacy vendors whose pricing was built for banks, not dealers.
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The Frameworks That Govern Precious Metals AML Compliance
AML Watcher's screening capabilities map directly to the international and national AML obligations that apply across the precious metals value chain.
FATF Recommendation 22 DNFBPs
Designates precious metals and stones dealers as DNFBPs, requiring CDD, PEP screening, transaction monitoring, ongoing monitoring, and SAR reporting similar to financial institutions.
OFAC Sanctions Precious Metals
OFAC sanctions on Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and North Korea restrict precious metals transactions, with secondary sanctions risks for non-U.S. dealers dealing with sanctioned parties.
EU 5AMLD High-Value Goods Dealers
Extends AML requirements to dealers accepting €10,000+ in cash for high-value goods, including precious metals, mandating customer identification, CDD, record-keeping, and FIU reporting.
UK Money Laundering Regulations 2017
Classifies High Value Dealers accepting £10,000+ in cash, including precious metals dealers, requiring HMRC registration, CDD, enhanced due diligence, and SAR reporting to the NCA.
OECD Due Diligence Guidance Minerals
Requires refiners and smelters to perform supply chain due diligence to identify conflict mineral risks, human rights impacts, and sanctions exposure in high-risk sourcing areas.
FATF Recommendation 12 PEP Screening
Requires enhanced due diligence on PEPs across all FATF levels, including Relatives and Close Associates, for business relationships and high-value transactions above national thresholds.
Why Choose AML Watcher?
We are continuously making our data better. Our team of researchers keeps on adding new data sources, cleaning the data for clarity, and enhancing structures for accuracy.
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Transparent audit trails ensure seamless reporting for regulatory audits.
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Build custom lists for targeted fraud prevention and compliance.
Faster updates
Our data refreshes 88% faster, ensuring real-time access to critical insights.
Fewer false positives
Save time with 44% fewer false positives compared to traditional solutions.
What People Say About It
Navigating through adverse media sources often chaotic and overwhelming content can be challenging. Still, AML Watcher's proprietary biometric data matching capabilities can achieve complete accuracy and filter out false positives.
Anti Money Laundering Officer
AML Watcher maintains such features as 1300 plus diverse watch-list databases, over 200 comprehensive sanction regimes, 235 plus countries while ensuring comprehensive coverage, over 5000 reputed and reliable media sources with global coverage, 80 plus languages enabling multilingual reach, and finally over 100,000 unique reliable data sources.
Sanctions Advisor / Associate Director
AML Watcher's vision is to create a simple solution with as little operator activity as possible, which can improve the defense against money laundering and reduce the impact of money laundering.
Head of Compliance - Eleving Consumer Finance CEO / Founder - Edulatica
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What does “Good AML Data” mean for AML Watcher?
Your AML screening solution is as promising as the weakest link in your data chain.
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AML screening is crucial for the insurance industry, but navigating its complexities can be challenging. How do you ensure thorough risk assessments while minimizing fraudulent claims? Uncover strategies and insights in our latest publications.
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What role does AML screening play in protecting your business from financial crime? How can insurers balance regulatory compliance with efficient claims management? And what tools are reshaping screening for sanctions, adverse media, PEPs, and more? Dive into these topics and more in our latest blogs.
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FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
AML Compliance ensures you stay safe from the rising risk of financial crime. It is necessary for mitigating fraud and defending operations. AML Watcher provides an efficient and effective aml screening solution to make your onboarding process safe and compliant.
Fintech compliance ranges from screening your customers for sanctions, PEP status, and watchlists when they are onboarding and performing risk assessments in line with the regulatory requirements. These regulations are designed to stop criminals from exploiting the financial system for money laundering, fraud, and other illicit activities. Explore our Buyer’s Guide for a step-by-step approach to selecting the best AML solution for your needs.
AML Watcher provides end-to-end automation for AML Screening, streamlining Customer Due Diligence, and flagging suspicious clients. With proprietary data from 235+ countries, detect potential hits without worrying about False Positives and False Negatives.