What does Ongoing Monitoring mean in the context of Anti-Money Laundering (AML)?

Ongoing monitoring refers to the continuous scrutiny of business relationships. This process matter because while occasional transactions may not initially present as suspicious, they may form a pattern of behaviour over an extended period of time which reveals a change in risk profile or business relationship. Ongoing monitoring includes: 

Monitoring transactions throughout the course of a business relationship to ensure a client's risk profile matches their behaviour; 

Maintaining responsiveness to any change in risk profile, or any factors which might raise suspicion; 

Keeping relevant records, documents, data and information that may be needed for <a href="/glossarycollection/customer-due-diligence" style="color:#48277C;" target="_blank" title="Customer Due Diligence">CDD </a> purposes up to date; 

Ongoing monitoring should apply to all business relationships but like other CDD measures it may be scaled to reflect a customer's risk profile. 

CDD does not stop after establishing a relationship with the customer. Transactions and account activity should be regularly monitored to identify money laundering or terrorist financing risks. The behaviour of the customer should always be in line with the expected level of activity.