AML case management workflow — how do you structure yours?

Smart to fix the process before automating — that's a mistake a lot of organizations make when buying case management software. They purchase a tool and then wonder why it doesn't help.

A solid AML investigation workflow typically has these stages:

1. Triage — Alert comes in, gets an initial risk score (automated if possible). A senior analyst or team lead assigns it based on complexity and analyst workload.

2. Investigation — The analyst gathers relevant data: transaction history, customer profile, prior SARs, adverse media. A centralized system should pull this together in one view rather than requiring the analyst to log into 5 different systems.

3. Documentation — Ongoing notes as the investigation progresses. This is crucial — if the analyst leaves mid-case, someone else should be able to pick it up.

4. Decision — File SAR, close with no action, or escalate for further review. Clear decision criteria reduce subjectivity.

5. Quality assurance — A second pair of eyes reviews a sample of both filed and closed cases. This is where most AML programs find their biggest improvement opportunities.

6. Closure and feedback — Close the case and feed learnings back into the alert tuning process.

For case linking: this is one of the biggest advantages of moving from Excel to dedicated software. Being able to connect multiple alerts, customers, and SARs into a single investigation is transformative for catching networks.