The CGSS package is built from four stackable ACAMS online certificate courses plus a study guide, review questions, flashcards and a practice exam. Here's what each course covers, based on ACAMS's programme description.
1. Sanctions frameworks and governance
- What sanctions are for: foreign policy, national security, counter-terrorism, non-proliferation
- Issuing authorities: UN Security Council, US (OFAC, State Department, Commerce/BIS), EU Council, UK (OFSI, FCDO), others
- Types: comprehensive, targeted (asset freezes), sectoral, secondary sanctions, export controls
- Governance: board oversight, roles, sanctions policy, risk appetite
2. Building a sanctions compliance programme
- Sanctions risk assessment (customers, products, geographies, delivery channels)
- Due diligence: ownership and control (OFAC 50 percent rule; EU/UK tests), KYC for sanctions
- Screening: customers, payments and trade; lists, fuzzy matching, tuning, alert handling
- Training, testing and audit; OFAC's framework for compliance commitments
3. Detecting and investigating sanctions evasion
- Evasion techniques: front and shell companies, transshipment, false trade documents, maritime deceptive practices (ship-to-ship transfers, AIS manipulation), proxies and family members
- Red flags in trade finance, correspondent banking and maritime trade
- Investigations, blocking and rejecting, reporting to authorities, asset freezing
4. Sanctions compliance case studies
- Real-world enforcement cases and what went wrong
- Applying the framework to complex scenarios, as the exam does
Package materials
Electronic study guide (PDF), e-learning courses, review questions, flashcards, practice exam and the exam. The Virtual Classroom bundle adds six live online classes.
Practise these topics with our CGSS practice questions and flashcards.
Find out where you stand
Free 10-question CGSS test, scored by exam domain. No account needed.
Independent guide, not affiliated with ACAMS. Facts checked November 2026; always confirm on the official website.