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Financial Crime

Common FAQs

Financial Crime Common FAQs

How can I log and track incidents of financial crime in my organisation?

Our Compliance Breach Register allows you to securely log and monitor incidents of financial crime, such as bribery or money laundering. The tool enables you to track resolution progress and maintain a clear audit trail, ensuring accountability and compliance with regulatory requirements.

How can I ensure my employees understand and comply with our internal policies in relation to financial crime?

Our Policy Hub enables you to distribute policies such as your Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policy to employees, track acknowledgements, and send automated reminders. This ensures everyone understands their obligations and helps you maintain compliance with financial crime regulations.
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Can small businesses be held accountable under competition law?

Yes. Competition law applies to businesses of all sizes. Even small companies can face investigations and serious penalties for engaging in anti-competitive conduct.

Are informal conversations with competitors risky?

Absolutely. Informal chats, especially those involving prices, market plans, or customers, can constitute unlawful agreements and should be avoided.

What are the consequences of breaking competition law?

Violations can lead to heavy fines for companies, director disqualification, criminal prosecution, and reputational damage.

How can companies prevent anti-competitive behaviour?

By implementing regular compliance training, setting clear internal policies, encouraging reporting of concerns, and ensuring employees understand the legal risks.

Does the Criminal Finances Act 2017 apply to non-UK companies?

Yes. The Act can apply to overseas entities if any part of the tax evasion facilitation occurs within the UK or involves UK tax liabilities. Multinational firms with UK operations should take note.

What industries are most at risk under the Criminal Finances Act?

Industries with complex financial transactions, high-value assets, or extensive third-party relationships such as banking, legal services, real estate, and professional consulting are particularly exposed to conduct and facilitation risks.

How often should businesses review their tax evasion prevention procedures?

Best practice is to conduct reviews annually or whenever there are significant changes in business operations, regulatory guidance, or risk exposure. Regular audits help ensure ongoing compliance.

Can small businesses be prosecuted under the Criminal Finances Act 2017?

Yes. The Act applies to all organisations, regardless of size. However, the HMRC’s guiding principles allow for proportionality, meaning smaller firms are expected to implement controls that match their risk level and operational complexity.

What industries are most vulnerable to proliferation financing risks?

Industries dealing with dual-use goods, advanced technologies, chemicals, and logistics are particularly exposed. Financial institutions supporting international trade also face elevated risks.

How can small businesses ensure compliance with proliferation financing regulations?

Even SMEs should implement basic risk assessments, maintain up-to-date sanctions screening tools, and train staff on red flags related to trade-based money laundering and dual-use items.

Are there international standards for combating proliferation financing?

Yes. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) provides global guidelines, including Recommendation 7, which focuses on targeted financial sanctions related to proliferation.

What are “dual-use goods” and why are they significant?

Dual-use goods are items that can serve both civilian and military purposes. Their trade is tightly regulated due to the potential for misuse in weapons development.

How often should proliferation financing risk assessments be updated?

Best practice suggests reviewing risk assessments annually or whenever there are significant changes in business operations, customer profiles, or geopolitical developments.

What is an anti-money laundering check?

As per Experian, AML checks “help prevent money laundering by confirming potential customers and businesses are who they say they are, and assessing how likely it is they’re involved in financial crime. For entities regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), this due diligence is considered essential and is a legal requirement”.

What is anti-money laundering compliance?

Following AML laws, regulations and procedures to detect and stop suspicious and illicit money flows, including fraud and terrorist financing.

Are Skillcast courses SCORM-compliant?

Yes. This means they can be delivered via the Skillcast Portal or any other SCORM-compliant Learning Management System.

What other tools are needed beyond training?

A comprehensive compliance solution often needs more than just training. Alongside e-learning, tools such as declarations, surveys and registers that track compliance tasks are usually essential. Skillcast provides full support to help you set up these additional tools.

Is our training content still compliant with the latest legislation?

• You can check the latest course content updates in our library updates page: https://www.skillcast.com/compliance-course-library-updates
• For major legislative changes, we:
  • Send you email alerts to ensure you are notified
  • Offer you a free trial of newly created or updated content
  • Host webinars with compliance experts to explain the changes and how our training supports your ongoing compliance

Can you translate our content into other languages?

Yes, we offer translations in a wide range of languages. Let us know your needs, and we’ll confirm availability or work with you to plan translations for your selected modules.

What file types are supported by the Skillcast system?

Features	Supported file types and details
File Exchange	File types: PDF, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, SCORM and xAPI files, and compressed zip files. Max file size: Default is 1GB, can be increased to a max of 2GB
SCORM files	Versions: SCORM 1.2, SCORM 1.2 for Moodle, SCORM 2004 2nd, 3rd and 4th Edition. Max file size: 1024MB
xAPI file	Max file size: 2GB
Videos	File types: MP4 or MOV. Videos must be optimised, with a max file size of 100MB. If the file is bigger, our Design Team can help
Images	File types: jpg, png and gif. The file size should ideally be 100KB, but it can be up to 250KB
CPD evidence	File types: Word, PDF, Excel and CSV. File size: the limit should be whatever the portal config option is set to. Servers are set to max 2GB
Policy documents	PDF or Word File size: the limit should be whatever the portal config option is set to. Servers are set to max 2GB
Offline activities evidence	File types: PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PNG, GIF, JPEG, JPG, PPTX and MSG. File size: the limit should be whatever the portal config option is set to. Servers are set to max 2GB
Client logo files	File types provided by client: EPS, PDF, AI and SVG
Registers	PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX, CSV, PPT, PPTX, POT, PPA, PPS, JPG, JPEG, PJEPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, MP4, MOV, WMV, CPTX, CP, TXT, ZIP and MSG files
Declarations	JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, XLS and XLSX files

 

What is Aida and how does it ensure reliable answers?

 Aida is an AI tutor embedded in courses that allows learners to ask questions at any point during learning. It draws exclusively on content that has been vetted and curated by your organisation, including course materials, internal policies, approved web resources, and regulator sites. This curated approach ensures answers reflect accurate, organisation‑specific guidance. 

Can administrators see what questions are asked and how Aida responds?

Yes. Reporting includes both the questions asked and Aida’s responses. For meaningful insight, questions are also categorised by topic (e.g., records management, gifts and hospitality) to reveal trends. All reporting is anonymised by default to encourage open, non‑threatening inquiry. To protect assessment integrity, Aida is disabled during assessments and is only available during the learning components of a course.