At AUSTRAC, our mission is to safeguard Australia’s financial system from criminal exploitation and misuse. As Australia’s financial intelligence unit and regulator, we work closely with businesses across various sectors to ensure compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations.

This year we engaged with entities across various sectors – banking, financial services, fintech, casinos, pubs, clubs and crypto—both large and small to build resilience in Australia’s financial system. 

We observed several improvements, including: 

• Improvements in compliance culture: Many businesses invested time and effort to improve their financial crime compliance and maturity. This includes raising awareness internally and externally with their stakeholders to help protect customers and the community. 
• Upgrades to system processes and technology: We also observed that investments made in new systems and technology upgrades improved businesses’ ability to detect and report financial crime.

While we saw improvements in some areas, below are the key areas we encouraged businesses to focus on: 

• Board oversight and engagement: We encouraged wider board involvement in managing money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risks. Boards should continue to actively engage in developing, assessing and monitoring its ML/TF risk appetite and tolerance. This includes receiving frequent reports, escalating matters to the Board and the Board responding to ML/TF risk exposure.
• Compliance function capacity: Businesses, particularly in emerging and growing sectors, are encouraged to match compliance capabilities and resourcing as they expand, to avoid delays in reporting and gaps in transaction monitoring investigations.
• ML/TF risk exposure: Small and medium businesses should regularly review and assess ML/TF risks, which are distinct from enterprise wide risk assessments. Businesses should incorporate insights from publications, such as our 2024 money laundering national risk assessment and 2024 terrorism financing national risk assessment.
• Customer identification: Adequate checks on customer identity and source of wealth and funds are crucial for businesses. We understand businesses prioritise a swift and seamless customer experience. However, it’s essential to ensure adequate and periodic reviews of transactions or unusual activity are carried out to assess ML/TF risks and exposures. 
• Transaction monitoring: Tailored rules and triggers to detect high-risk typologies, such as terrorism financing, can help businesses prioritise high-risk investigations that in turn support law enforcement in disrupting illicit activities.
• Independent reviews: Robust independent reviews of AML/CTF programs deliver better outcomes by identifying gaps and improvements. We encouraged all sectors to consider these aspects when engaging such reviews to avoid any variances in the quality or adequacy. 

What you can do

AUSTRAC will continue engaging with businesses and focus on regulatory activities to strengthen the financial system against serious crime.

Some key actions you can take to ensure you do your part include:

• ensure you are up to date with your AML/CTF obligations 
• understand your reporting obligations and report suspicious activity to us
• read new resources and guidance relevant to your industry.