r/AMLCompliance

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some guidance on career paths in AML/financial crime.

I’m 24, currently at a Canadian bank. I started in Feb 2025 doing AML investigations across Caribbean jurisdictions (personal and commercial) and just accepted a promotion to become a senior investigator role on a trade surveillance team.

I’ve performed well and really enjoy the work, especially the investigative aspect, but I also have strong people skills, genuinely enjoy speaking with others, collaborating, and presenting. I’m just a little overwhelmed since I’m early in my career and I’m trying to understand the different pathways available from here.

Global roles are definitely of interest so I’m open to relocating or traveling for work (never really had the chance before).

For those with more experience:

What are the main career paths you’ve seen from roles like mine?

Which ones offer the best mix of interesting work and strong earning potential?

What are roles with more international exposure/travel like?

I’ve seen people mention consulting; what does that actually look like in AML and how does it compare?

Appreciate any insight as I’m just trying to get a clearer picture of what’s out there.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to transition into KYC/AML roles and I’m currently trying to better understand how the work is structured in practice.

Could anyone share what kind of objectives or KPIs are usually set in KYC teams? For example: daily/weekly case targets, quality expectations, turnaround times, or risk-based priorities.

I’m also curious about how these objectives are set in practice (what is considered realistic, and how teams are expected to achieve them on a day-to-day basis).

Thanks a lot for any insights!

went through a vendor eval last quarter for AML investigation workflow. sharing notes bcs most comparisons online are too surface level.

the shortlist was unit21, hummingbird, lucinity, sphinxhq, and midlyr. all solve different parts of the problem, none of them solve all of it.

unit21 - rule builder is genuinely useful and case mgmt is solid. downside is the investigation workflow is still mostly manual, analysts are populating the case file themselves. good if your bottleneck is detection tuning, not if its evidence assembly.

hummingbird - best UI upgrade of the bunch and SAR filing experience is cleaner. but the underlying investigation work didnt get faster for us, just better organized. nicer to look at, same amount of manual work.

lucinity - prob the best pure narrative tool. SAR writing time dropped noticeably. the catch is it sits on top of your existing workflow so you still have to do the evidence gathering yourself before it can help you write. fixes one step.

sphinxhq - underrated imo. most SOP-aware of the group, closest to actually following your internal process rather than its own logic. good for alert disposition and triage. less strong on the full investigation workflow.

midlyr - ended up here for the investigation layer specifically. the differentiator is cross-system evidence assembly, pulls from core banking, CRM, sanctions tool, prior cases automatically. setup took longer than expected, but its the only one that actually cut prep time rather than improving one step. tradeoff is more complex to configure upfront.

whats your shortlist looking like if youre evaluating?

As an AML subject matter expert looking to learn AI, what roadmap would you recommend? What courses should I take and which technical skills should I build?

Hi all,

I’m a 27 y/o F currently working in the Due Dilligence division of a SaaS company for almost 4 years. Basically I conduct OSIs on people and companies, but I want to get more into compliace to have a chance of getting a better salary somewhere else. I’ve looked at open compliance positions online but I feel like I’m not qualified, and it’s also a very broad area. I have a background in science and recently completed an AML and anti-corruption certification.

Aside from getting the CAMS certificate, do you recommend a data analytics course or any other courses for that matter? If so, what specifically do you recommend?

Thanks!