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AML Compliance for DNFBPs

AML Compliance For DNFBPs and Tranche 2 Entities

DNFBPs and Tranche 2 entities face increasing financial crime risks and regulatory pressure. AML Watcher combines sanctions screening, PEP intelligence, and adverse media with AI-powered agents to make compliance faster, smarter, and more efficient.

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3,500+
Global watchlists across 235+
countries
44%
Fewer false positives vs legacy
solutions
80+
Languages covered for adverse
media
50%
Reduction in AML
operational cost
The Industry Challenge

Professional Services Have Become The Preferred Gateway For Financial Crime.

FATF has consistently identified lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and trust administrators as sectors where illicit funds enter the legitimate economy with the greatest ease. Tranche 2 reform closes the regulatory gap, but compliance obligations only protect businesses that have the screening infrastructure to meet them.

Tranche 2 Reform Is Now Law, Not Optional

Australia's AML/CTF Amendment Act 2024 brings lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, and TCSPs under AUSTRAC obligations from July 2026. Similar rules already apply across the UK, EU, and other FATF jurisdictions. The challenge is no longer awareness, it is having the systems to stay compliant.

Client Funds and Transactions Create Direct Exposure

DNFBPs are directly involved in moving and managing client funds through property transactions, trust accounts, and corporate structures. This exposure is exactly what FATF Recommendation 22 addresses. Without proper sanctions, PEP, and adverse media screening, firms are taking on risk they cannot justify.

Supervision Is Active and Ongoing

FATF evaluations now assess how effectively DNFBPs are supervised, not just whether laws exist. Regulatory bodies across Australia, the UK, the EU, and Singapore are actively inspecting firms. Without documented, risk-based screening, firms face serious professional consequences.

What Legacy Approaches Get Wrong

The Gaps That Create Real Risk

Most professional service firms currently rely on ad hoc Google searches, outdated PEP lists or one-time onboarding checks. None of these satisfy the documented, risk-based approach that Tranche 2 regulators now examine for.

Onboarding Checks That Are Never Repeated

A client cleared at onboarding may later become sanctioned, politically exposed, or linked to criminal activity. Without ongoing monitoring, firms lose visibility and cannot demonstrate that risks were identified or addressed.

PEP Screening That Only Covers Heads of State

Many firms rely on limited databases that only capture senior political figures. However, most corruption risk sits with regional officials and state-linked roles. Missing them creates a false sense of compliance.

No Adverse Media Beyond English-Language Sources

A client may appear low risk in English media while being widely reported in other languages. Without multilingual coverage, firms miss critical risk signals tied to international clients and cross-border transactions.

No Audit Trail for Supervisory Examination

Regulators expect clear records of screening, risk decisions, and supporting evidence. Firms relying on manual checks cannot provide this. AML Watcher creates structured, timestamped audit trails for every screening decision.

Five Sectors. One Platform.

AML Intelligence Calibrated to Each Designated Profession

Each DNFBP sector handles client risk differently, faces different regulatory triggers and requires different screening workflows. AML Watcher is configured to serve all, with the right depth of sanctions, PEP and adverse media intelligence for each specific professional context.

Real Estate Agents

High-Value Property Deals Require Deeper Screening

Property is a leading channel for large-scale money laundering. High-value transactions and cross-border buyers increase exposure for real estate agents. Under Tranche 2, failing to screen for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media creates direct liability.

  • Sanctions screening across OFAC SDN, EU, UN and 215+ national regimes
  • International leaks identification via Panama Papers, Pandora Papers and FinCEN Files
  • PEP screening across all four FATF levels including RCA coverage
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Legal Professionals

Conduct Screening Before Accepting Client Funds

Law firms handle client funds, cross-border transactions, and legal structures that can be misused for financial crime. Regulators expect risk-based screening before instructions are accepted and before funds are received. AML Watcher delivers sanctions, PEP, and adverse media screening with a complete audit trail for every decision.

  • Simultaneous sanctions, PEP, watchlist, adverse media and leaks screening in one check
  • Multi-language adverse media including Russian, Arabic and Chinese for international clients
  • TruRisk AI distinguishes genuine flags from name coincidences, no alert fatigue
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Legal Professionals
Accountants & Audit Firms

Monitor AML Risk Beyond Onboarding

AML obligations for accountants and audit firms extend beyond onboarding. Client risk can change over time through sanctions, PEP designation, or adverse media. AML Watcher provides continuous monitoring across sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media to keep firms informed in real time.

  • Ongoing monitoring with real-time alerts on sanctions, PEP status and adverse media changes
  • Risk-tiered review scheduling, high-risk clients reviewed more frequently
  • Batch screening for large client portfolios, thousands of accounts in a single run
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Accountants & Audit Firms
Trust & Company Service Providers

Identify Risk Behind Complex Structures

TCSPs work within complex structures that can conceal financial crime risk. While structures themselves may appear legitimate, underlying sanctions exposure, PEP connections, or adverse media signals can indicate elevated risk. AML Watcher provides screening across these risk areas in a single view.

  • Sanctions screening that looks through nominee structures to underlying beneficial owners
  • PEP screening across all four FATF levels, including for family members used as proxies
  • Adverse media covering 5,000+ sources to surface criminal exposure not yet on watchlists
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Trust & Company Service Providers
High-Value Goods Dealers

Money Laundering Risks in High-Value Goods

High-value goods markets are frequently used to move illicit funds through private and cross-border transactions. Art dealers, luxury brokers, and collectors face elevated exposure to sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media risks. AML Watcher enables comprehensive screening across all three risk areas.

  • Buyer and seller screening against OFAC, EU, UN and 215+ national sanctions regimes
  • International leaks intelligence, FinCEN Files, Panama Papers and Pandora Papers
  • Adverse media in 80+ languages including Russian, Arabic and Chinese
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High-Value Goods Dealers

Broader Coverage. Better Accuracy. Lower Cost.

AML Watcher is built around a single principle: no securities commission should have to choose between comprehensive coverage and operational cost. Our in-house database delivers both.

44%
Fewer false positives compared
to legacy AML solutions
88%
Faster data refresh rate for real-
time critical insights
70-80%
Reduction in manual review
work via TruRisk AI
50%
Lower AML compliance cost vs
current solutions
Regulatory Coverage

The Frameworks That Now Govern Every DNFBP

AML Watcher's screening capabilities map directly to the FATF obligations and national legislation that applies to designated non-financial businesses and professions across every major jurisdiction.

FATF Recommendation 22 DNFBPs

Designates dealers in precious metals and stones as DNFBPs, requiring CDD, PEP screening, transaction monitoring, ongoing monitoring and SAR obligations equivalent to those applied to financial institutions.

Australia AML/CTF Amendment Act 2024

Extends Australia's AML/CTF regime to Tranche 2 entities — lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and TCSPs — from 1 July 2026, with AUSTRAC supervision, risk-based programme obligations and mandatory reporting.

EU 5AMLD / 6AMLD

Extends AML obligations to high-value goods dealers, art market participants and lettings agents, and expands predicate offence coverage to 22 categories under 6AMLD — requiring documented CDD and ongoing monitoring.

UK Money Laundering Regulations 2017

Designates accountants, legal professionals, trust and company service providers and estate agents as supervised sectors under HMRC, the FCA and professional bodies including the SRA, ICAEW and RICS.

OFAC & Secondary Sanctions

Non-US DNFBPs facilitating transactions that involve sanctioned parties — directly or through intermediaries — face secondary sanctions exposure. AML Watcher screens for secondary exposure, not just direct SDN matches.

FATF Mutual Evaluation Findings

FATF mutual evaluation reports consistently identify DNFBPs as high-risk sectors with inadequate AML supervision effectiveness. Countries with poor DNFBP ratings face enhanced monitoring — directly increasing supervisory pressure on firms in those jurisdictions.

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.

Regulatory
compliance

Transparent audit trails ensure seamless reporting for regulatory audits.  

Tailored AML
solutions

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

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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.

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Stefano Marzi

Anti Money Laundering Officer

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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.

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Robert L. Williams III

Sanctions Advisor / Associate Director

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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.

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Hristijan Blazovski

Head of Compliance - Eleving Consumer Finance CEO / Founder - Edulatica

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Make your Risk Assessment Through

Switch to AML Watcher today and reduce your current AML cost by 50% - no questions asked.

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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.

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