Compliance glossary
Plain-English definitions of terms used across this platform.
- AML / CFT
- Anti-Money Laundering / Countering the Financing of Terrorism — the body of laws and controls that stop criminal or terrorist funds moving through the financial system.
- Beneficial owner
- The natural person who ultimately owns or controls a customer or asset, even when hidden behind companies or trusts.
- CDD / EDD
- Customer Due Diligence — verifying who a customer is and what they do. Enhanced Due Diligence applies deeper checks for higher-risk customers such as PEPs.
- Enforcement action
- A formal measure by a regulator against a firm or person: monetary penalties, business restrictions, license cancellations, cease-and-desist orders.
- FATF
- The Financial Action Task Force — the global AML/CFT standard-setter. Its mutual evaluations and grey/black lists drive national reform.
- FIU
- Financial Intelligence Unit — the national agency that receives and analyses suspicious transaction reports (e.g. FIU-IND, FinCEN).
- Instrument
- Our umbrella term for any legal text: acts, regulations, directions, circulars, guidelines, rules and notifications.
- KYC
- Know Your Customer — identifying and verifying customers at onboarding and keeping that information current.
- Master Direction
- A consolidated RBI rulebook on one subject, amended in place — e.g. the KYC Master Direction, 2016.
- MER
- Mutual Evaluation Report — FATF's peer assessment of how well a country implements AML/CFT standards.
- Obligation
- A concrete compliance duty an industry must perform under an instrument — a filing, a control, an appointment, a report.
- PEP
- Politically Exposed Person — someone with a prominent public function, whose accounts require enhanced scrutiny.
- Prudential regulation
- Rules about safety and soundness — capital, liquidity, governance — as opposed to conduct rules about how firms treat customers.
- STR / SAR
- Suspicious Transaction/Activity Report — the confidential report a firm files with the FIU when it suspects illicit funds. Tipping off the customer is an offence.
- Tier 1 / 2 / 3 profile
- Our coverage depth: Tier 1 = deep, actively maintained; Tier 2 = standard; Tier 3 = baseline profile awaiting expansion.