Boutique AML and financial crime advisory for fintechs, payments firms, EMIs, crypto businesses and RegTech vendors who want regulator-aligned controls that actually work in practice.
askMLRO is the trading name of Veritas Horizon Partners Ltd, a specialist AML and financial crime consultancy based in London and working with UK and EU clients.
The firm is led by a former FCA-approved MLRO with over a decade of hands-on experience across brokerage, fintech and high-risk environments. That includes running financial crime functions under close supervisory attention and under complex sanctions regimes. We have seen first-hand how regulators think, how they make decisions, and what distinguishes a credible programme from one that only looks good on paper.
We work with founders, boards, MLROs and product teams who want a senior, specialist partner – not a rotating cast of junior consultants.
We design frameworks, controls and documentation that can actually be run by your team, in your tools, with the resources you have. No theoretical wish-lists.
We build frameworks you can stand behind with regulators, banks, auditors and your own board because it is evidence-backed and aligned to the relevant regime.
Every engagement starts with understanding your business model, products, customers and risk profile. Templates are used only where standard forms are expected; the substance is built around your reality.
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Helping fintechs, PSPs, EMIs and VASPs prepare the financial crime, risk and governance elements of FCA licence applications so submissions are coherent, risk-based and easier to review.
Designing and implementing complete AML and financial crime programmes – governance, risk assessments, customer lifecycle, monitoring, sanctions and reporting – that actually run and can scale.
Supporting recently licensed firms with fractional MLRO and senior compliance cover, controls build-out, assurance and horizon scanning in the first 0–18 months after authorisation.
Tuning transaction-monitoring rules, screening configurations, alert workflows and MI so operations teams spend their time on real risk rather than noise.
Helping RegTech vendors validate their products against real-world AML and sanctions expectations, strengthen logic and audit trails, and design credible pilots and sandbox use-cases.
When supervisory findings, s166 work or serious incidents arise, we support firms with triage, remediation planning and regulatory engagement so the firm has a clear path forward.
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We keep the model simple and transparent:
Your work is led by someone who has run AML and financial crime functions in practice and has sat in FCA meetings, not by a junior learning on the job.
Framework and control builds run in scoped sprints with clear deliverables, review points and acceptance criteria, agreed up front.
We work alongside founders, MLROs, product, operations and engineering so controls land in your environment, not as theoretical recommendations.
Every material deliverable makes it obvious what it is for, who owns it, where the underlying evidence sits, and how it will be maintained.
We work with a small number of clients at a time so each engagement has senior attention and room for the complexity it deserves.
We know the UK and EU regulatory landscape well enough to shape programmes that are defensible and explainable, without turning your business into a compliance museum.
Our experience includes navigating heavy supervisory attention, complex sanctions and challenging timelines while keeping firms operating and compliant
We design solutions that tackle meaningful gaps and build long-term capability, not just billable hours. Our goal is to leave you with working controls and greater internal confidence.
You are preparing an FCA application and want the financial crime and governance track to be clear, coherent and licence-ready
You are recently licensed and building out controls, and want fractional senior support and technical depth without adding full-time headcount
You are a RegTech vendor building or refining AML, KYC, sanctions or monitoring products and need regulatory domain expertise to make the product credible
A complex issue has surfaced – supervisory findings, sanctions exposure, major incidents – and you need a calm, experienced partner to help you stabilise, plan and engage with stakeholders
