CAFCA Practice Test

Skills this practice test covers

• Classify FinTech business models, from PSPs to cryptocurrency exchanges, by their financial crime risk.
• Apply CIP, CDD and EDD to a customer according to its risk rating.
• Check digital data points, such as IP address and GPS coordinates, against what a customer claims.
• Screen payments for sanctions and fraud, and decide what happens to a payment that raises a concern.
• Investigate a transaction monitoring alert and decide whether to file a SAR.
• Reassess risk when a FinTech adds a product, a market or an outsourced control.

5 domains · 34 topics · 138 questions

Requirements

• Required: active membership of ACAMS.
• No work experience or earlier AML training is needed to sit the exam.

About the CAFCA exam

How to earn the certification

Earns

Certified AML FinTech Compliance Associate (CAFCA)Associate

CAFCA is valid for one year at a time and is renewed through ACAMS.

After

• CAMS Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS)

  The ACAMS specialist certification in anti-money laundering, a usual next step after an associate certification.

• CGSS Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS)

  The ACAMS specialist certification for sanctions compliance, which takes CAFCA's screening topics further.

How to prepare for CAFCA

1. 1

   Sort the FinTech business models

   List PSPs, digital wallets, cryptocurrency exchanges, BaaS providers and neo-banks, and note how money moves through each. Then note the financial crimes each model attracts and the license or charter it needs.

2. 2

   Draw the digital onboarding flow

   Sketch an online onboarding from application to approval. Mark where CIP, eKYC, sanctions and PEP screening and the risk rating happen, and where red flags such as spoofing can appear.

3. 3

   Work an alert through to a SAR

   Take one suspicious pattern, such as funds layered quickly through a wallet, and write the investigation notes, the escalation and a short SAR narrative. Keep an audit trail at every step.

4. 4

   Review a product launch for risk

   List the risks of a new feature, such as international payments or a new account type, and the controls each one needs. Scaling Anti-Financial Crime Strategies asks for this kind of review.

5. 5

   Start with the heaviest domain

   Payment Screening and Transaction Monitoring carries the most weight, so practise it first in Study Mode. Finish with the CAFCA practice test in Timed Mode and review each miss with Brainy AI Assistant.

   Start a timed CAFCArun

ACAMS offers CAFCA as a certification package that includes a study guide, digital flashcards, online study materials and a practice exam.

Who CAFCA is for

• Compliance and onboarding staff at payment apps, digital wallets and other FinTechs.
• People starting out in financial crime compliance who want an entry-level certification.
• Compliance professionals who want to build on their AML knowledge in a FinTech role.

Typical job titles: AML analyst · Compliance analyst · KYC analyst · Transaction monitoring analyst · FinTech compliance officer

CAFCA glossary

20 terms from the exam objectives and the vendor's official material, each defined in a sentence.

BaaS (Banking as a Service) providers

Banks or platforms that let a FinTech offer accounts, cards or payments on top of a licensed bank's systems.

CDD (Customer Due Diligence)

The checks that confirm who a customer is and what activity to expect, so that the customer's risk can be rated.

CIP (Customer Identification Program)

The rules for collecting and verifying a customer's identity details when an account is opened.

Confirmation bias

The habit of favoring evidence that supports an early theory and overlooking evidence against it.

De-risking

A bank's decision to end or limit relationships with whole groups of customers, such as some FinTechs, to avoid their risk.

Digital wallets

Apps that store payment details or a balance, so users can pay or send money from a phone or computer.

EDD (Enhanced Due Diligence)

Extra checks for higher-risk customers, such as confirming the source of funds and reviewing the account more often.

eKYC (Electronic KYC)

Customer identity checks done digitally, such as document scans, selfie matching or database lookups.

FATF recommendations

The international standards on AML and counter-terrorist financing set by the Financial Action Task Force.

Integrating funds

The step in which laundered money returns to the legitimate economy, for example through purchases or investments.

Layering funds

Moving money through many transactions or accounts to hide where it came from.

Lines of defense

A risk model that gives separate control duties to the business, to risk and compliance, and to internal audit.

MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer)

The person who oversees a firm's AML controls and decides whether to report suspicious activity to the authorities.

PEPs

Politically exposed persons: people with prominent public roles, and their close associates, who carry a higher risk of corruption.

PSPs (Payment Service Providers)

Companies that move and process payments on behalf of merchants or consumers.

RegTechs

Regulatory technology firms that supply software for compliance work, such as screening or transaction monitoring.

Risk appetite

The amount and kind of risk a firm is willing to accept to reach its goals.

SPII

Sensitive personally identifiable information, such as a passport or social security number, whose exposure can cause serious harm.

Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs)

Reports a firm files with the authorities when it suspects money laundering or another financial crime. Many countries call them suspicious transaction reports (STRs).

Tipping off

Telling a customer, directly or by hint, that a report or investigation about them exists, which the law forbids in many countries.