Knowledge hub · 30 handbooks

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Guides, explainers, and deep dives on sanctions, PEP screening, UK AML law, and more, written for compliance students and professionals. All free, always.

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Fraud13 MIN
Synthetic Identity and Device-Network Fraud: Two Different Problems People Treat as One
The industry teaches the detection technology. Nobody teaches the judgement once the alert is already in your queue. Four patterns, three decision scenarios, and a comparative matrix on stolen versus synthetic identity, with a knowledge check.
Synthetic Identity
Fraud16 MIN
Money Mule Networks: The Account Was Never Fraudulent, Until It Was
Most mule accounts aren't opened for fraud anymore, they're real accounts taken over mid-life. Four decision scenarios on account handovers, instant-payment velocity, business-account fronts, and fraud-AML convergence, with a real £53m case and a knowledge check.
Money Mule
Crypto13 MIN
The Crypto Travel Rule: Making the Call When the Data Doesn't Arrive
The sunrise problem isn't a policy debate, it's a decision on incomplete data. An interactive decision tree for sending and receiving crypto transfers, the EU's two different thresholds, and what to do when a counterparty's data never arrives.
Travel Rule
Onboarding15 MIN
Perpetual KYC: Why Periodic and Event-Driven Review Are Not the Same Control
The FCA's 8 April 2026 review found firms collapse periodic and event-driven review into one control, or define neither well enough to evidence. Four decision scenarios, the Nationwide £44m case, and a knowledge check.
Perpetual KYC
Transaction Monitoring20 MIN
Transaction Monitoring: From Rules to AI, The Practitioner's Deep Dive
How TM systems really work, why 95% of alerts are false positives, how AI is changing the game, and what analysts actually do when the queue hits 400. Includes typology cards, alert triage simulator, and knowledge check.
TM Rules
Screening18 MIN
The Screening Alert Survival Guide: 7 Challenges Every Analyst Faces
800 alerts. 95% false positives. No DOB on file. The honest, unfiltered guide to what screening alert clearance actually involves, and what genuinely helps.
False positives
Screening25 MIN
What is Financial Crime Screening? The Complete Guide
A comprehensive, interactive introduction to sanctions screening, PEP checks, and adverse media monitoring, with quizzes, real examples, and live tool access.
Sanctions
Onboarding25 MIN
KYC / KYB / CDD / EDD: The Onboarding Dilemma
Six archetypes from lone individual to sovereign wealth fund. Six real dilemmas. Make the call yourself, then see the correct answer and the regulation behind it. The only guide that covers every customer type in one place.
KYC
Fraud15 MIN
Fraud Red Flags: Reading the Patterns, Not Just the Rules
Four live cases from Scenario Lab's Fraud Detection module, worked through properly. Account takeover, APP scams, transaction laundering, and structuring, decision scenarios with full reasoning and a knowledge check.
Account Takeover
Screening12 MIN
The False Positive Playbook: Disposing Alerts Without Getting It Wrong
The guide the vendors don't write. Three decision scenarios on disposing sanctions, PEP, and adverse media alerts correctly, name matching, DOB mismatches, transliteration, and adverse media false hits, with full reasoning and a knowledge check.
False Positives
Onboarding14 MIN
The UBO Investigation Handbook: Finding the Real Owner
Checking a register isn't investigating an ownership structure, it's the starting point. Three decision scenarios on nominee directors, unreliable PSC register data, the 2022 CJEU ruling on EU register access, and trust beneficiaries, with full reasoning and a knowledge check.
Beneficial Ownership
Onboarding13 MIN
The Source of Wealth Investigation Handbook: Telling a Plausible Story from Verified Evidence
A well-told explanation is not the same as a verified one. Three decision scenarios on verifying source of wealth and source of funds, a two-step gift case study, and a knowledge check, for compliance analysts who need to distinguish a plausible story from actual verification.
Source of Wealth
Screening12 MIN
The Adverse Media Intelligence Guide: Reading the Story Behind the Headline
Confirming identity is the easy half. Three decision scenarios on weighing legal stage, source credibility, recency, and role in adverse media hits, with a source credibility hierarchy and a knowledge check.
Adverse Media
Fraud14 MIN
The Fraud Investigation Playbook: Building a File That Survives Review
Most investigation guides teach corporate fraud. This one teaches the queue. Three decision scenarios on testing theories, the POCA disclosure boundary, and file documentation, with the full reporting chain from detection to DAML.
Fraud Investigation
Screening16 MIN
Tuning Screening Algorithms: Why Fuzzy Matching Isn't Magic
The default threshold, the algorithms actually in production, and the real case where two different people scored 0.98 on the same sanctions list. An interactive pipeline visualizer walks four name pairs through retrieval and scoring.
Fuzzy Matching
Sanctions15 MIN
Sanctions Compliance: OFAC, OFSI and Beyond
Sanctions explained in plain English, a real OFAC case that generates false positives against ordinary people, flip flashcards, and a live comparison against a globally known designation.
OFAC
Career14 MIN
The Certifications Dilemma: AML & Compliance Credentials Compared
Twelve credentials, cost, eligibility, and recertification burden checked directly against each issuing body's own site, not ranked against each other, matched to the career stage each one actually fits.
Certifications
Fraud17 MIN
What Actually Happens After You Suspect a Deepfake at Onboarding
The detection tool gives you a confidence score, not a verdict. Four worked scenarios on the judgement that comes next, a real 46-account ABN AMRO case, and a knowledge check.
Deepfake Fraud
Fraud18 MIN
The AI Agent Transaction Nobody Can Screen
No settled UK answer exists for who is liable when an AI agent makes the purchase. Four composite scenarios grounded in real FCA, CMA, and IMF sources, not a technology explainer.
Agentic AI
Fraud16 MIN
Gambling's White-Label Blind Spot
A licensed operator supplies the licence, a separate brand supplies the front end. UKGC's own case material and enforcement pattern show exactly where accountability gets lost.
White Label

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The FinCrimeRadar Knowledge Hub

This is a free, practitioner-written library covering the core disciplines of AML and financial crime compliance: sanctions and PEP screening, suspicious activity reporting, transaction monitoring, FATF standards, cryptoasset compliance, and MLRO accountability. Every guide is written from direct hands-on compliance experience across UK, APAC, and Middle East regulatory regimes, not summarised from other publishers or generated without editorial review.

Guides are organised into series rather than standalone posts, because most compliance topics don't fit into a single article without losing the depth a practitioner actually needs. The SAR Complete Guide, for example, runs across three parts covering identification, drafting, and the escalation process, mirroring how the topic is actually taught and applied in a live compliance function. The same structure applies to the PEP Screening Handbook, the UK AML Compliance Guide, and the Crypto Guide.

How to use this hub

If you're new to a topic, start with the first part of its series rather than jumping to a later instalment, each guide builds on definitions and frameworks introduced earlier in its own series. If you're looking for something specific, the filter and search controls below narrow the library by topic. Every guide links out to FinCrimeRadar's live screening tool and Scenario Lab where relevant, so you can move from reading about a concept directly into practising it.

New guides are added on a rolling basis as the library grows. This hub, and everything in it, is free to read without a login or paywall.