The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act) has recently been amended to clarify the way penalty units accrue for unenrolled businesses.

What does this mean for my business?

If your business has provided a designated service for at least 28 days, but has failed to enrol with AUSTRAC, it can accrue daily penalties from 9 November 2023. These penalties continue to accrue until you enrol or stop providing designated services.

For each day your business remains unenrolled, it may be liable for a penalty of up to 12 penalty units, or up to 60 penalty units for bodies corporate. Each unit is currently $313, which means your business could incur $3,756 in penalties per day, or $18,780 for bodies corporate. If your business remains unenrolled for a year, this fine could add up to $1,370,940, or $6,854,700 for bodies corporate.

How can my business avoid these penalties?

You can check if your business needs to enrol with AUSTRAC by answering some questions about your businesses and the services you provide.

There are many different types of businesses that need to enrol with AUSTRAC. This includes banking and financial services providers, remittance service providers, casinos, pubs and clubs, digital currency exchange (DCE) providers, bookmakers and betting agencies, and more. Learn more about the types of businesses we regulate.

If your business provides these services you should enrol as soon as possible. In addition to enrolling, DCE and remittance service providers must also register with AUSTRAC.

How to enrol

You can enrol or register with AUSTRAC at any time by submitting information about your business using the online form.

It’s important to enrol with AUSTRAC to help protect your community from serious and organised crime.