Stay Informed with the Latest Insights & Tools

When building a Business-Wide Risk Assessment (BWRA)*, Firm-Wide Risk Assessment (FWRA), or Risk & Control Self-Assessment (RCSA) or AML Risk Assessment, one of the most common weaknesses regulators flag is a failure to base the assessment on credible, data-driven sources. The FCA, and JMLSG all stress that firms must evidence their AML/financial crime risk assessments […]

The Business-Wide Risk Assessment (BWRA) should be the backbone of every firm’s financial crime framework. It is designed to help identify, prioritise, and mitigate money laundering, terrorist financing, and wider financial crime threats. Yet enforcement cases, thematic reviews, and regulatory findings continue to show that the BWRA is too often reduced to a compliance artefact: polished on paper, hollow in practice.

Money laundering and financial crime continue to escalate at a staggering pace. ​According to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), it is assessed as a realistic possibility that over £100 billion is laundered through and within the UK  each year.

Let’s be clear: a risk assessment alone won’t stop money laundering or financial crime. That’s a fact. But dismissing its value would be a fundamental mistake. Without a robust risk assessment process in place, how can any firm truly understand its AML/Financial Crime risks — or build an effective control framework to mitigate them?