The Istanbul Institute of Finance (IFE) has joined forces with the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists (ACAMS) to offer its flagship Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) certification in Turkey beginning in May 2019.

The partnership will enable financial crime prevention professionals in Turkey to create and drive a culture of compliance while advancing their professional knowledge, skills and experience in the detection and prevention of money laundering and financial crimes.

The CAMS Certification helps create a standardized risk-based approach for money laundering threats and financial crimes risks, and will now be available in Turkey. It is seeing steady growth in its financial markets.

"Economic growth has precipitated a strong demand for anti-money laundering (AML) and financial crime prevention professionals in Turkey, more so with the increased scrutiny on compliance globally," said Angela Salter, ACAMS' Europe head.

"Under the terms of the partnership, IFE will conduct the training sessions and looks forward to engaging key government agencies including MASAK (the Financial Crimes Investigation Board), the regulatory body in Turkey that deals with AML and terrorism financing," said Çetin Altay, CEO of the IFE.

"Our mission at the IFE is to build a specialized human-capital talent pool by delivering internationally recognized certifications such as CAMS to address pressing global issues in AML and Financial Crimes Prevention," continued Altay. "A deterrent in the past was the medium of delivery and the high cost of certification training programs, and this is now being addressed through the partnership with ACAMS. This will also bode well for Turkey's goal of becoming a global financial hub."

ACAMS is a part of Adtalem Global Education, a mission-driven provider of education headquartered in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to set standards and promote effective implementation of legal, regulatory and operational measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system, is currently conducting the fourth round of a mutual evaluation of Turkey. The report is expected to be released in October.

On its previous assessment in October 2014, the FATF concluded that Turkey had taken sufficient steps in addressing technical compliance with the core and key recommendations to be removed from the follow-up process and the country was removed from FATF's monitoring process given its program of anti-money laundering compliance programs.