The Risk Management and Compliance Programme

A Risk Management and Compliance Programme (RMCP) should explain how an accountable institution understands its exposure to money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing, what it does to manage those risks, and how it checks whether its controls work. Under South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre Act, an RMCP must be developed, documented, maintained and implemented. The Financial Intelligence Centre’s guidance connects risk assessment, risk mitigation and the monitoring of control effectiveness.

This course takes learners through the RMCP as a working programme. Across five modules, it moves from the purpose and governance of an RMCP to assessing the institution’s risks, designing suitable controls, putting those controls into daily practice, and maintaining and evaluating their effectiveness. Practical scenarios show how gaps can arise between an approved document and what happens in a client file, transaction review or management decision.

This course is intended for people who develop, approve, implement, oversee or evaluate an RMCP within a South African accountable institution. This includes compliance officers and financial crime teams, risk and operations managers, customer onboarding and transaction-monitoring teams, internal assurance staff, senior management and board members.

It is relevant to financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions, including property practitioners, legal practitioners and other accountable institutions that need to translate RMCP requirements into controls suited to their activities and risks. Advisers who support institutions with risk assessments, RMCP development or effectiveness reviews may also benefit.

By the end of the course, learners should be able to explain how an institution-wide risk assessment informs the RMCP; connect identified risks to procedures, systems and responsibilities; recognise weaknesses in implementation and control performance; and identify the evidence needed to support a credible evaluation.