On 12 December 2008, the final tranche of obligations contained in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (Cth) 2006 came into force.
The Act has had a significant impact on the Australian financial sector since it came into force on 12 December 2006. It has imposed AML/CTF obligations on a wide range of financial service providers (including those in the banking, life insurance, managed funds and superannuation sectors) and on the gambling and bullion sectors. Those obligations have included customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, threshold and suspicious matter reporting, record keeping, correspondent banking controls and the implementation of a risk based AML/CTF Program. Non-compliance with the Act carries significant penalties.
What businesses are regulated under the Act and how they comply with their obligations under the Act, AML/CTF Rules and the various Guidance issued by the regulator, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre continues to raise complex and technical issues.
From 1 November 2011, new AML and Counter-Terrorism Financing obligations came into effect for all reporting entities and remitters. From 1 November 2011 the AML/CTF Act will require:
- reporting entities to enrol with AUSTRAC and to keep enrolment details up to date
- providers of remittance services (remitters) to apply to be registered with AUSTRAC, which will include the requirement to demonstrate suitability for registration.
Details of the updated obligations can be found at: http://www.austrac.gov.au/aml_ctf.html
For more information about how the AML/CTF reforms affect your business refer to the Archive section
