CGSC study guide
CGSC · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The ICA Certified Global Sanctions Compliance (CGSC) is a professional qualification offered by the International Compliance Association (ICA), a body whose subject areas include Managing Sanctions Risk alongside anti money laundering, governance, risk and compliance, financial crime prevention, and customer due diligence/KYC. The credential is aimed at compliance, risk and financial crime prevention professionals who need to understand and manage sanctions exposure within their organisations, and at those seeking a recognised, structured grounding in sanctions compliance practice. The exam is structured around two equally weighted domains: Managing Sanctions Risk, and Sanctions Compliance Programme Elements, each accounting for 50 per cent of the assessment. Candidates should expect to work through sanctions risk identification, assessment and mitigation, and the design and operation of a sanctions compliance programme, including policy, controls, screening, escalation and governance. Topics on this exam: Managing Sanctions Risk and Sanctions Compliance Programme Elements. The CGSC study guide has 2 sections and about 702 words.
01Managing Sanctions Risk: Identification, Assessment and Mitigation
Sanctions risk management is a continuous cycle: identify exposure, assess it, mitigate it, then monitor and review . Candidates should be able to name each stage and describe outputs. Identification means mapping the institution's touchpoints - customers, beneficial owners, counterparties, intermediaries, goods, vessels, destinations, payment routes and staff. Assessment means scoring likelihood and impact, considering factors such as jurisdiction, sector, product, customer type, ownership complexity and transaction profile.
346 words, about 2 min02Sanctions Compliance Programme Elements
A sanctions compliance programme is a set of interdependent elements, commonly grouped as: senior management commitment , risk assessment , internal controls (policies and procedures) , training , audit/testing , and recordkeeping/reporting . Candidates should be able to describe each element and explain how it interacts with the others - for example, a risk assessment should drive policy design and training content, and audit should test whether controls actually operate. Governance and commitment : board and senior management ownership, a designated sanctions officer, clear escalation paths and a documented risk appetite. Policies and procedures : screening (customer, counterparty, payment, trade), escalation and blocking/rejection handling, onboarding and due diligence standards, and procedures for new products and jurisdictions.
356 words, about 2 min