‘Time to stop arguing about AML/CTF’

The anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime is coming and ‘it’s time to stop arguing and do something about it’, attendees at today’s Queensland Law Society Property and Commercial Law Conference have been told.

Shane Budden, Special Counsel with QLS Ethics and Practice Centre, said it was time to acknowledge the challenges it presented, but preparatory action was needed now.

“We’ve got to get to the point where, yes, it’s a difficult regime. It’s not well suited to us. It’s going to involve heavy compliance costs,” Shane said during his presentation at Sofitel Brisbane Central.

“But the time for complaining about that is over, the time for doing stuff is now and the clock is ticking.”

Shane laid out a series of steps that practitioners need to take to prepare before the obligations take effect in July next year, including enrolling with AUSTRAC and having a compliance program in place.

QLS CEO Matt Dunn said that with the AML/CTF rules having just come out in their final form, practitioners now had the chance to see the Act and the rules in their final form.

“That gives us the legal context around where it’s at,” Matt said.

However he said that due to its complexity, practitioners had a lot of questions about how it would work.

“And that is where the guidance will come in, in a very big way,” he said.

“The guidance that’s going to be in published is being worked on at the moment by AUSTRAC, which is really going to give us a lot more practical, grounded material about how the rubber is going to hit the road.”

He noted the guidance and small business packs would be available before the end of the year. Matt said it would be an “absolutely critical” guide for small businesses managing compliance.

The remarks were made as part of a series of presentations on the AML/CTF regime at the conference where AUSTRAC’s Director of Rules Reform Ashlea McKenzie outlined the background to the measures which have been supported by significant QLS advocacy.

With the measures set to have significant implications for practitioners, QLS has a set of links and resources available here for members.