Typology Assessment
See which financial crime patterns could show up in your business and whether your controls are built to spot them.
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About Typology Assessment
Financial crime is rarely obvious. A transaction can look perfectly normal on its own. It is often the pattern around it, the timing, amount, frequency or parties involved — that raises a concern.
A Typology Assessment helps you understand what those patterns could look like in your business. It connects known financial crime methods with your customers, products, payment routes and day-to-day transaction activity.
Vertex Compliance does not start with a generic list and assume every scenario applies. The assessment is shaped around the way your business actually works and the activity your teams normally see.
You come away knowing which typologies deserve attention, what signs to watch for and whether your current monitoring is likely to pick them up.
What Our Typology Assessment Reviews
We understand your business first, then match relevant typologies to your existing monitoring and controls.
1. Customers, Products and Transactions
Before looking for unusual activity, we need to understand what normal activity looks like. That means considering your customer base, the products and services they use, common transaction types and how payments usually move. Countries, delivery channels and payment methods can also change what a suspicious pattern looks like. From there, we can narrow the review to typologies that genuinely fit your business instead of working through a standard list that may have little relevance.
2. Financial Crime Patterns
The next part is about behaviour. Funds moving unexpectedly, repeated transfers between connected parties, sudden changes in transaction size or activity with no obvious commercial reason can all deserve a closer look. But context matters. A pattern that looks unusual in one business may be normal in another. We therefore connect each typology to the customers, products and activity you actually deal with, so the findings are useful rather than theoretical.
3. Monitoring and Detection Controls
Knowing a typology exists is only useful if your controls have a reasonable chance of spotting it. We review the monitoring rules, scenarios, thresholds, alerts and customer review processes already in place. Sometimes relevant behaviour is not covered. Sometimes the opposite happens: a rule produces so many alerts that the useful ones become harder to find. The assessment shows where monitoring can be tightened, changed or made more useful for the compliance team.
Our Approach
We understand your business first, then match relevant typologies to your existing monitoring and controls.
Understand the Business
We begin with how the business works day to day. That means understanding your customers, products, services, transaction flows, payment routes, countries and delivery channels. We also get a sense of the activity your team would normally expect to see. That context matters. Without it, an unusual pattern can easily be mistaken for ordinary customer behaviour — or the other way around.
Find Relevant Typologies
Next, we work out which financial crime methods could realistically appear in your business. We do not load the assessment with every known typology. Instead, the focus stays on patterns that make sense for your customers, products and transaction activity. That could include unusual fund movements, connected-party activity, sudden behavioural changes or other activity that does not fit the expected profile.
Check Your Controls
Once the relevant typologies are clear, we compare them with the controls already in place. Monitoring scenarios, thresholds, alerts and customer reviews are checked to see what they are actually designed to catch. This often shows where an important behaviour has been missed, where a rule is too broad or where an existing scenario is producing alerts that add little value.
Prioritise the Changes
The last step is deciding what needs attention first. You get practical actions based on what the assessment finds. That might mean introducing a new scenario, changing an existing threshold, improving escalation or giving staff clearer red flags to work with. The result is a more focused monitoring process and a clear idea of what to improve next.
Who Is a Typology Assessment For?
Banks and Financial Institutions
Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions
Virtual Asset Service Providers
Fintech, Payment and Remittance Businesses
Ideal for businesses that need to identify emerging ML/TF patterns and understand how relevant typologies may affect their risk exposure.
Why Choose Our Typology Assessment?
Focus on the Right Patterns
Your business does not need to monitor every typology in the same way. We concentrate on the patterns that make sense for your customers, products and transactions. That gives your team a more useful starting point than a long, generic list.
Improve Your Monitoring
More alerts do not automatically mean better monitoring. We help identify where an important behaviour may be missing and where an existing rule could be too broad, outdated or simply not giving your team useful results.
Recognise Red Flags Earlier
People make better decisions when they know what they are looking for. The assessment turns typologies into clearer behaviours and transaction patterns, helping compliance teams recognise activity that may deserve a closer review.
Keep Controls Relevant
Financial crime methods do not stand still, and neither does your business. A typology assessment gives you a chance to check whether the monitoring you rely on still fits the customers, products and activity you deal with today.
Meet the Experts
Vasantha Madan Mohan
Managing Director
Sridhar Rajam
Associate Partner
Arjun Mohan
Director – Sales & Marketing