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AML Compliance for Precious Metals

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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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 Risky Nature of the Industry

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.

Problems Legacy Systems Leave Unsolved

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.

Proprietary Data For Every Business Model

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.

Bullion Dealers & Coin Traders

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
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High-value jewellery retailers

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
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Legal Professionals
Refiners

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
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Accountants & Audit Firms
Secondary Precious Metals Dealers

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
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Trust & Company Service Providers
Digital Gold Platforms and Investment Services

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
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High-Value Goods Dealers

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.

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 Standards Covered

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.

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.

  • Find right product and pricing for your business
  • Get your current solution provider audit & minimise your changeover risk
  • Gain expert insights with quick response time to your queries

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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