What is Ongoing Monitoring for AML Compliance

Key Takeaways

1. Ongoing monitoring is essential beyond onboarding: Risk evolves over time, and continuous monitoring ensures early detection of money laundering and fraud.
 

2. Real-time analytics and machine learning enhance AML compliance: Modern AML solutions enable proactive detection and behavioral tracking to prevent financial crime.
 

3. Integrated compliance platforms simplify operations: Tools like Youverify allow organizations to handle KYC, ongoing monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting in one centralized workflow.

Introduction 

The global due diligence investigation market is valued at about USD 8.18 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.7%, reaching USD 11.01 billion by 2029. This growth is driven by increased demand for digital and technology solutions, regulatory compliance, and risk mitigation, including AI-powered risk analytics and automation for due diligence processes.


When a customer is onboarded, financial institutions conduct Know Your Customer (KYC) checks to ensure they are not malicious actors attempting to misuse the system for money laundering or terrorist financing. This process, known as Customer Due Diligence (CDD), involves verifying that customers are indeed who they claim to be.

 

But the process doesn’t end at onboarding. Malicious individuals are constantly seeking loopholes and weaknesses to exploit. Imagine a room with strict security at the entrance, where only verified people are allowed in. But once inside, they are left unsupervised. What happens then? 

What Exactly Is Ongoing Monitoring?

Ongoing monitoring is important for AML compliance, as it ensures that suspicious transactions or user activity do not go out unchecked. It is the continuous review of customer activities, transactions, and behaviors after they’ve been onboarded. It ensures that any unusual or suspicious behavior is quickly flagged and investigated. 

Ongoing Monitoring is a proactive AML compliance measure and essentially entails catching AML and fraud risks before they escalate. Ongoing monitoring involves tracking transactions in real time, screening against updated sanctions and watchlists, monitoring for red flags such as unusually large transfers, structuring transactions, or cross-border anomalies, and identifying deviations from expected customer behavior.

Key Components of Ongoing Monitoring include:

1. Compliance Monitoring, a proactive approach to ensuring that entities comply with AML laws, rules, and regulations as well as internal policies. 

2. Data analytics tools are instrumental for analyzing vast sets of data to inform transaction tracking systems, strategies, and internal policies.

3. Transaction tracking systems to help scrutinize customer transactions in real time. 

4. Behavioral Analytics, to help study and collect data on continuous user behavior and to help set behavioral baselines.

5. Automated Alert Systems, triggered when suspicious activities or transactions are identified. 

6. Identity Verification Systems to prevent unauthorized access and to ensure the authenticity of customer identities. 

7. Machine learning algorithms for predictive and real-time monitoring. 

8. Audit trails, which are thorough records of activity that provide a chronological account of transactions. 
 

Interesting read: What are the Key Differences Between AML, KYC, and CDD?

What is AML Compliance?

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance refers to the regulations, policies, and procedures financial institutions must follow to prevent money laundering, terrorist financing, and related financial crimes. AML compliance typically includes:

1. Customer Due Diligence (CDD) at onboarding.

2. Ongoing monitoring of transactions.

3. Reporting suspicious activity to regulators.

4. Ensuring compliance with local and global AML laws.

 

Why Ongoing Monitoring is Important for AML Compliance 

Below is the importance of ongoing monitoring for AML compliance 
 

1. Ongoing Monitoring Aids Risk Detection 

Ongoing monitoring KYC solutions aid risk detection in real time; a customer’s risk isn’t fixed at onboarding. It changes with behavior, life events, and exposure. There are often signs or shifts that are telltale signs of money laundering or fraud. 

For example, a spike in the velocity of transactions or geographic anomalies, or disparity in transactions with stated income or occupation. If a student account starts to process millions daily, then it is probably time to look into it. Behavioral baselines should be set to trigger anomalies; other solutions can include continuous rescoring and event-driven KYC refresh. 
 

Another notable example: if a user logs in on a new device, a quick enhanced due diligence process may be initiated to verify their identity while ensuring customer satisfaction. 

2. Ongoing Monitoring Helps Fraud Prevention Systems Adapt To Evolving Threats 

With fraud threats evolving, ongoing AML monitoring of machine learning systems can pick up new patterns that can help inform fraud prevention strategies and decisions, as well as policies, as opposed to traditional systems that are just set and forgotten. 
 

3. Ongoing Monitoring Aids Compliance 

Ongoing monitoring aids compliance with AML rules, such as the FATF recommendations for suspicious activity reporting and the Travel Rule. With ongoing monitoring, financial institutions can meet regulatory expectations.  

The ongoing monitoring process allows compliance officers to detect suspicious activity in real time and report it to the appropriate authorities. Transaction monitoring and transaction screening are all elements of ongoing monitoring solutions. 

4. Ongoing Monitoring Improves Fraud Prevention And Detection Measures 

Strong AML monitoring reduces fraud losses because criminal money movement often overlaps fraud patterns. Most ongoing monitoring components and systems are trained or designed to detect these money laundering patterns that overlap with fraud. 

Proactively Prevent Fraud From Onboarding To Transactions With Youverify

The great thing is, there is a platform where compliance officers can perform all of that in one place: KYC onboarding, ongoing monitoring, and suspicious activity reporting all in real time. 

At Youverify, we provide end-to-end AML compliance program requirement solutions, from seamless KYC onboarding to real-time ongoing monitoring. With Youverify, commercial entities, neobanks, Fintechs, Remittance platforms, and insurance companies can

- Perform safe and secure KYC onboarding processes 

- Automate transaction monitoring in real time.

- Detect and flag suspicious activity instantly.

- Stay compliant with evolving AML regulations.

- File SARs in real time. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What is the purpose of ongoing monitoring in AML/CFT compliance?

A: The purpose is to continuously track and evaluate customer transactions and behaviors to detect suspicious activities and prevent money laundering or terrorist financing.

Q2: What is the AML monitoring process?

A: The AML monitoring process involves transaction tracking, screening against sanctions and watchlists, setting behavioral baselines, generating automated alerts, and conducting enhanced due diligence when anomalies are detected.

Q3: What does "ongoing" mean in relation to risk management?

 A: "Ongoing" means continuous, real-time monitoring of customers and transactions, ensuring that emerging risks are identified and addressed promptly rather than relying solely on static onboarding checks.

Q4: What is the point of ongoing monitoring in AML?

A: The point is to proactively detect and mitigate risks of money laundering, fraud, and regulatory non-compliance throughout the customer lifecycle.

Q5: Why is ongoing monitoring conducted?

A: It is conducted to ensure compliance with AML compliance program requirements, safeguard against evolving fraud schemes, and protect the institution and its customers from financial crime.

Bottom Line 

Ongoing monitoring is indispensable for AML compliance, especially with the onset of digital banking, where money travels across borders with incredible speed. 

To effectively tackle money laundering, compliance officers cannot just hang up their boots after a seemingly successful KYC onboarding process. True success lies in effective monitoring, tracking, and reporting of suspicious activities or transactions. 

For businesses looking to stay compliant and ahead, book a demo today with youverify.