• To protect and preserve the integrity and confidentiality of bank accounts
• To ensure that the Philippines shall not be used as a money laundering site for proceeds of any unlawful activity.
• To extend cooperation in transnational investigation and prosecution of person involved in money laundering activities wherever committed.

The AMLC is assisted by a Secretariat headed by an Executive Director and consists of four (4) units; the Compliance and Investigation Staff (CIS), the Legal Evaluation Staff (LES), the Information Management and Analysis Staff (IMAS) and the Administrative and Financial Services Division (AFSD).

• Requires and receives covered or suspicious transaction reports from covered institutions (banks and all other institutions and their subsidiaries and affiliates supervised or regulated by BSP; insurance companies and all other institutions supervised or regulated by the IC; and securities dealers and other entities supervised or regulated by the SEC);
• Issues orders addressed to the appropriate Supervising Authority (the BSP, IC or SEC) or the covered institution to determine the true identity of the owner of any monetary instrument/property subject of a covered or suspicious transaction report or request for assistance from a foreign State, or believed by the AMLC, on the basis of substantial evidence, to be representing, involving, or related to the proceeds of an unlawful activity;
• Institutes civil forfeiture proceedings and all other remedial proceedings through the Office of the Solicitor General;
• Causes the filing of complaints with the Department of Justice or the Ombudsman for the prosecution of money laundering offenses;
• Investigates suspicious transactions and covered transactions deemed suspicious after an investigation by AMLC, money laundering activities, and other violations of the AMLA;
• Applies before the Court of Appeals, ex parte, for the freezing of any monetary instrument/property alleged to be proceeds of any unlawful activity as defined in the AMLA;
• Implements such measures as may be necessary and justified to counteract money laundering;
• Receives and takes action in respect of any request for assistance from foreign states in their own anti-money laundering operations;
• Develops educational programs on the pernicious effects of money laundering, the methods and techniques used in money laundering, the viable means of preventing money laundering and the effective ways of prosecuting and punishing offenders;
• Enlists the assistance of any branch, department, bureau, office, agency or instrumentality of the government, including government-owned and –controlled corporations in undertaking any and all anti-money laundering operations, which may include the use of its personnel, facilities and resources for the more resolute prevention, detection and investigation of money laundering offenses and prosecution of offenders;
• Imposes administrative sanctions for the violation of laws, rules, regulations and orders and resolutions issued pursuant thereto; and
• Examines or inquires into bank deposits/investments upon order of any competent court in cases of violation of the AMLA, when it has been established that there is probable cause that the deposits/investments are related to an unlawful activity. No court order, however, is necessary in cases involving kidnapping for ransom; narcotics offenses; and hijacking, destructive arson and murder, including those perpetrated by terrorists against non-combatant persons and similar targets.

To ensure compliance with AMLA, the BSP may inquire into or examine any deposit or investment with any banking institution or non-bank financial institution when the examination is made in the course of a periodic or special examination in accordance with the rules of examination of the BSP.