The 32,000-member Association for Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialists is having its accreditation programme translated into French, with a roll-out date of 2016 for all Francophone countries. Compliance Matters took the opportunity to ask ACAMS a few questions.

As readers might notice, the answers are not always very consistent with the questions, but we present them here in all their glory. The entrepreneur Charles Intriago started ACAMS in 2001 as a profit-making business and then sold it for a good price in 2008 to Fortent, with Thomson Reuters acquiring it in 2011. During his time ACAMS found it difficult to break out of its cradle in the Americas, but it now seems to be taking the world by storm.

Q1: Which AML luminary has done the translating?

A: The French translation is being done by a professional translator, native French and fluent English speaker, and compliance professional.

Q2: Is there any difference between this and the English language version? (Or is there more than one English version?)

A: No. CAMS is a global exam and is the same in all languages – Arabic, Chinese, English, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

Q3: Will there be more of an emphasis on controlling terrorist finance in the wake of the Paris attacks?

A: The interest in global AML/CTF has been accelerating in France in recent years due not just to terrorist attacks but also to enforcement actions and implementation of the [European Union's] 4th Directive. ACAMS France Chapter has been running for almost 2 years.

Q4: Is this just a translation of the manual and the multi-choice question, or are they rolling out a battery of seminars and conferences?

A: ACAMS already has thriving member chapters in Montreal and Paris. Most chapters in non-English speaking regions run bilingual programmes. This week’s chapter meeting in Paris, for example, featured the following speakers:

• Thierry PICART, chef de la direction des enquêtes douanières de la Direction Nationale du renseignement et des Enquêtes Douanières DNRED;
• David GILLES, inspecteur principal des finances publiques, en poste principalement à la Direction Nationale des Enquêtes Fiscales;
• William FEUGERE, avocat au barreau de Paris.

Further details about the meeting, which took place in French, can be found here: http://bis.lexisnexis.fr/pages/conference-acams-decembre-2015

ACAMS is currently translating materials associated with the CAMS examination including study materials, virtual and live classroom training programmes. Seminars and conferences on specific subjects will also be in French.

Q5: Canadian French is very different from French French. Are you using both?

A: The training will be in French and our members in France, Canada and other French speaking regions such as Congo, Cote D’Ivoire, Sengal etc are all happy with that.

Q6: Why didn't they do all this before? They've had ten years!

A: ACAMS responds pro-actively to local demand as demonstrated by the range of languages in which CAMS and other materials are already available. Demand for CAMS in French from francophone regions is relatively recent and we have responded promptly to that request.

Q7: In what year did Europe become ACAMS' best area for growth?

A: ACAMS membership is growing very rapidly by over 35% annually across the world. Europe has seen a lot of growth (over 25%) over the past 6 months since Angela Salter was appointed as Head of Europe and the 2015 European conference was the most successful ever. Since then ACAMS has expanded its team in London, established a presence in Paris, translated CAMS into Russian and expanded ACAMS Global Chapter Network across Europe with Chapters now actively operating in UK, Cyprus, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Netherlands with the Ireland chapter launching in Dublin on 14 January 2016. ACAMS Nordics and Poland Chapters will also launch early next year.

The standing of ACAMS in the AML world

ACAMS has no formal relationship with the globally active, standard-setting, 25-man Financial Action Task Force (and only a distant informal one) but as the leader in the field of AML certification it has obtained that body's near-patronage. Kenneth Abbot and his colleagues, in a book published this year and entitled International Organisations as Orchestrators, state: "The Financial Action Task Force explicitly endorses ACAMS in its country reports in the sections entitled "Supervision and Ovesight" which praise government personnel for receiving ACAMS certification[s]. For example, in its 2008 report on Canada, the FATF...praises FINTRAC personnel for attending [AML/TF] conferences and also for having a significant number of officials that are certified by ACAMS.

“Likewise, the report commends the Canadian government's Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions for having nine of its staff as members of ACAMS adn three certified by ACAMS as AML specialists. Likewise, the Netherlands report praises the government for its comprehensive programme of training and certification, specifically noting that five central bank staff members received ACAMS training.

“The report also lauds the Authority for Financial Markets for its decision to have staff members regularly attend ACAMS conferences and workshops. [Meanwhile, the FATF Aruba report of 2009] praised the government for having two of its staff members preparing for ACAMS certification..."