In line with its efforts to strengthen the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) framework across entities under its supervision, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) held a workshop to discuss key outcomes of the 2025 supervisory progress and to present the requirements of the Risk Assessment Questionnaire for licensed companies.

The workshop, delivered by the FSA’s AML/CFT Department, was held on Monday, 9 February 2026, and targeted compliance officers and their equivalents at companies operating under the Authority’s supervision in the capital market and insurance sectors.

The workshop aimed to shed light on the key observations from inspection visits, present major updates to the companies’ data collection questionnaire for the 2025 financial year, clarify selected concepts included in the questionnaire, and shed light on common errors made by licensed companies when submitting data through the system. Participants were urged to provide accurate data aligned with their operational activities to enhance data quality, which directly feeds into the AML/CFT risk matrix for licensed sectors.

The workshop also discussed areas requiring further strengthening within companies’ AML/CFT frameworks, with a focus on ensuring the comprehensiveness of risk assessment reports in terms of risk factors and applied due diligence measures, in accordance with regulatory requirements. This includes conducting detailed assessments of customer risk, geographic risk, product and service risk, and delivery channel risk.

The FSA further stressed the importance of ensuring that all required information is included in account opening and insurance application forms, and that all customer identification documents are completed prior to account opening. It also underscored the need to activate and empower the role of the compliance officer through proper qualification and training, granting the authorities stipulated in the regulations, and enabling them to effectively perform their duties. This includes enhancing awareness of suspicious transactions and reporting mechanisms, and ensuring the compliance officer has full access to customer information, due diligence records, transaction histories, and other relevant data.

The FSA noted that the workshop forms part of a broader series of AML/CFT programmes and workshops implemented by the AML/CFT Department in cooperation with relevant stakeholders and experts. These initiatives support the Authority’s awareness-raising role among supervised entities, alongside its legislative and supervisory mandate through the issuance of regulatory frameworks and the conduct of oversight and inspections.