From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) is an organization that provides training and certification, runs conferences and disseminates information on detection and prevention of money laundering.^[1] The Miami-based for-profit organization is a subsidiary of Alert Global Media, which provides news and analysis on money laundering laws and regulations.^[2][3]

Locations

Although based in the USA, ACAMS has an international reach with 7,000 members at the end of 2008 and a strong presence in Europe.^[4] In January 2009 ACAMS opened a center in Hong Kong.^[5] In June 2009 ACAMS established a Nigerian chapter in Lagos, Nigeria. The Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Justice Emmanuel Ayoola, said the ICPC was looking forward to a fruitful partnership with ACAMS in the campaign against corruption and all other related crimes.^[6]

Training

ACAMS provides training and assists other educational organizations in anti-money laundering courses. Its Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) program is internationally recognized. The CAMS program takes one day of education and half a day of examination, so participants must already have a strong basis in AML-related issues.^[7] The ACAMS qualifications are said to be less exacting than the graduate diplomas offered by the ICA in the UK.^[4]

In October 2004, ICAMS sent representatives to Dubai to start training Middle Eastern students to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.^[8] In July 2006, ACAMS arranged for a CAMS preparation seminar and examination on Grand Cayman.^[9] In January 2007, ICAMS gave Gregory A. Simms, former senior investigator at the Jamaican Financial Services Commission, the CAMS designation.^[10] In May 2008, ACAMS arranged CAMS testing in Beirut, attended five staff members of the Lebanese Special Investigation Commission.^[11] In July 2008, ACAMS and Case Western Reserve University School of Law offered a five-day course for compliance officers and others interested in the AML field.^[12] In May 2009, ACAMS signed an agreement with Fudan University in Shanghai to jointly provide anti-money laundering training throughout mainland China.^[13]

Conferences

In December 2007, ACAMS and the Union of Arab Banks held a conference on money laundering and terrorist financing conference in Dubai.^[14] ACAMS runs annual conferences, attended mainly by bank compliance officers responsible for ensuring that their institutions follow the provisions of the Bank Secrecy Act.^[15] In September 2008, at the seventh Annual International Money Laundering Conference & Exhibition, special sessions addressed the increasing risks caused by new online banking technologies and the emerging "virtual worlds."^[16]

Punditry

Executives of ACAMS are often cited in stories about money-laundering. In February 2003, Saskia Rietbroek-Garces, executive director of ACAMS, was quoted as saying "Money is like water. The money will always find the path of least resistance."^[17] In January 2005, talking of a case in which Riggs Bank failed to report suspicious transaction by General Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of Chile, Rietbroek-Garces said it was a "textbook case study of most of the money-laundering issues that have surfaced since the Patriot Act."^[18] In another interview that month, she said that detecting terrorist financing probably is one of the most challenging tasks for both small and large banks.^[19] A Wall Street Journal article of April 2005 quoted Rietbroek-Garces as saying that the greatest problem in South America is lack of enforcement, rather than lack of an up-to-date legal system.^[20]

References