Wednesday, 11 September 2024

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024 to reform Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regime has been introduced to Parliament.

These changes have been introduced to strengthen Australia’s stance on money laundering and terrorism financing, and bring anti-money laundering laws in line with standards recommended by global body, the Financial Action Task Force. The changes aim to reduce complexity and regulatory burden for reporting entities, ensure the regime responds to evolving threats, and harden businesses against exploitation by criminals. 

As expected, the Bill will impact existing reporting entities including financial institutions, money remitters, digital currency exchanges, gambling service providers and gold bullion dealers.  

In addition, the Bill has extended the regime to address vulnerabilities in a significant portion of ‘gatekeeper’ professions including lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and precious metal and stone dealers – also known as Tranche 2 entities. The reforms require these entities to implement risk management programs and conduct due diligence on their customers, and failure to do so may result in significant civil penalties. 

The key changes will need to be implemented fully by 31 March 2026. 

What you need to do:  

Organisations will need to start thinking about compliance procedures to ensure they are well positioned to meet requirements when the legislation comes into effect. There is time, however, and a pragmatic and systemic approach means little cause for panic. 

Be ‘reform ready’  

Newly regulated entities have been allocated sufficient time to make arrangements and prepare before being regulated under the AML/CTF regime.  

However, the reforms are significant, and we anticipate their impact to rival the 2006 introduction of the AML/CTF Act. They will require advance planning, programs of work and budgets to be in place well in advance. It will also place heavy demands on the financial crime professional services sector, so organisations should begin getting ‘reform ready’ sooner, rather than later. 

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