The Basel Institute on Governance is expanding its training offer to help more professionals build practical skills in financial investigations and asset recovery.

Building on decades of global experience, we are launching new courses for both public-sector practitioners and non-state actors. Our hands-on, case-based training is now accessible to a wider audience than ever before.

Reaching new audiences

For the first time, our flagship financial investigations and asset recovery training is available as an open enrolment online course for individual public-sector practitioners.

We are also expanding our offer for civil society organisations, investigative journalists and other professionals outside government. These groups play a growing role in exposing financial misconduct and supporting accountability.

The new courses build on the success of our popular Introduction to blockchain: Crypto investigation and AML compliance course. This course equips participants to tackle the misuse of cryptoassets for financial crime.

New course for public-sector practitioners

The financial investigations and asset recovery online course is a five-day, instructor-led training for investigators, prosecutors, judges and financial intelligence practitioners.

Participants work through a realistic case. They apply practical techniques to follow financial leads across jurisdictions, analyse financial flows, gather evidence using open-source intelligence and develop effective investigative strategies.

The first open-enrolment course will take place from 20–24 July 2026.

New courses for civil society and journalists

We are also launching Asset recovery for civil society and journalists, tailored to non-state actors working to uncover corruption and track public funds. This includes private-sector professionals working in compliance or investigations.

Two formats are available:

• An online course for individual participants, with the first open-enrolment session planned from 2–5 November 2026.
• A tailored training programme for organisations and groups, delivered on site or virtually.

Both formats are built around a realistic corruption case. Participants gain hands-on experience in tracing assets, analysing financial information and understanding how asset recovery works in practice.

Part of a wider learning offer

These courses complement our broader learning ecosystem.

This includes Basel LEARN, our free eLearning platform, and Basel STUDY, our academic programmes. Together, they provide flexible pathways for professionals to build and deepen their expertise.

A proven track record

The training courses are led by practitioners from the Basel Institute's International Centre for Asset Recovery (ICAR). Over the past 18 years, ICAR has trained more than 5,800 practitioners from financial intelligence units, law enforcement, prosecuting and judicial authorities in over 138 countries.

An independent study by Fondazione Safe found that our case-based, "learning by doing" approach drives meaningful institutional change and strengthens the effectiveness of efforts to tackle corruption and related crimes. Thierry Ravalomanda, Head of Training at ICAR, explained:

“We know from experience that practical, skills-based training makes a real difference in the fight against financial crime. By opening up our flagship courses to individual practitioners and expanding our offer for civil society and journalists, we are helping more people develop the tools they need to trace assets, follow the money and support accountability.”

With these new courses, we aim to make our expertise accessible to a broader community working to prevent, detect and address financial crime.