Run client due diligence at engagement, verify beneficial owners of business clients, and screen the whole client book as more jurisdictions bring accountants and bookkeepers into AML regimes.
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Accounting practices handle company formations, trust structures, tax advice, and client money, which makes them attractive to anyone trying to move or disguise funds. Accountants, tax agents and bookkeepers are designated non-financial businesses and professions under the FATF standards, and a growing number of jurisdictions now bring them into AML regimes, including Australia's Tranche 2 reforms. A firm that has never run formal customer checks therefore has to verify clients, screen them, and keep records that stand up to review.
The practical difficulty is that a firm's client book is a mix of individuals, companies, and trusts built up over years. Meeting those obligations means running due diligence at engagement, understanding who owns and controls each business client, and keeping every existing relationship under review rather than checking once and forgetting.
MemberCheck fits this into a workflow a practice can actually run: verify and screen at engagement, map beneficial ownership for entity clients, and re-screen the whole book as watchlists change, with the records retained and ready for audit.
Verify identity and screen new clients before you accept an engagement, so onboarding checks are documented from the first billable hour. Configurable matching keeps false positives low across a mixed book of individuals and entities.
Trace ownership and control of company and trust clients to identify the people behind the entity. MemberCheck surfaces UBOs so you understand who you are actually acting for.
Re-screen every existing client as sanctions and PEP lists change, not just at onboarding. Long-standing clients are reviewed automatically when their risk profile shifts.
Escalate higher-risk clients into deeper review with adverse-media checks and source-of-funds evidence. Findings and decisions are captured against each client file.
Retain screening results, risk ratings, and decisions with a full history that satisfies supervisory recordkeeping obligations. Records are exportable for audit or regulator request.
In a growing number of regimes. Accountants and bookkeepers sit in the DNFBP category that the FATF standards ask countries to bring into AML regulation, and jurisdictions apply it on their own timetable. Australia's Tranche 2 reforms extended obligations to accountants, tax agents and bookkeepers providing designated services, requiring client due diligence, screening, and reporting.
Yes. MemberCheck supports KYB workflows that map ownership and control structures so you can identify and screen the beneficial owners behind a business client.
Yes. Batch screening lets you run your full client list against sanctions and PEP data, and ongoing monitoring re-screens those clients as the lists change.
You should retain identity evidence, screening results, risk assessments, and decisions. MemberCheck stores these against each client with an exportable audit trail.
Book a walkthrough with our compliance team and screen a real case in the first session.
