At least 790 Queensland law firms have enrolled with AUSTRAC in time for today’s rollout of the new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws.
As of today, AUSTRAC is now regulating thousands of businesses under Australia’s reformed AML/CTF laws, with 4030 law firms enrolled nationwide.
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas told the Queensland Law Society that: “We know many legal firms are preparing for the new requirements, and the best thing you can do now is enrol.
In a social media post today, Mr Thomas said: “We’ve had tens of thousands of businesses enrol with us over the past few months I’m excited to say that just before 10am this morning we received our first suspicious matter report! The first of many.”
“Lawyers providing professional services, conveyancing services or real estate services are not required to register.”
Registration is only required for certain higher-risk services, including remittance and virtual asset services.
Businesses that continue to provide designated services without enrolling risk breaching the law and may face regulatory action.
“We are tracking well for enrolments, but many thousands of businesses are still under time pressure,” Mr Thomas said.
“If your business is captured by these laws, enrolment is not optional – it is a legal requirement.
“We have provided extensive guidance, tools and support to help businesses prepare. The laws are now in force – the expectation is compliance, and the alternative is enforcement.”
The law enforcement agency has also updated its reporting platform and released new threshold transaction report (TTR) and suspicious matter report (SMR) forms.
Mr Thomas said AUSTRAC was focused on where criminals were actively laundering money.
“We see criminals targeting areas like real estate and professional services to move and hide illicit money, often using trust and company structures to make it harder to detect,” Mr Thomas said.
“Bringing these sectors into the regime is about closing those gaps – putting more scrutiny on high-risk transactions and stopping dirty money at the point it enters the system.
“This means more eyes on the ground where we know criminal exploitation occurs, helping us detect suspicious behaviour earlier and disrupt it at scale.”
The Law Council of Australia has also released detailed guidance to help law firms to ascertain if they are providing a designated service.
“Any practice that provides a designated service will have to comply with the new rules. This makes it essential for practices to be able to properly assess whether their work falls under this definition,” LCA President Tania Wolff said.
“Based on how important this information is, clarifying what is an eligible designated service has been a priority of the Law Council’s consultation with Government since the Tranche 2 reforms were finalised,” Ms Wolff said.
“Practices will also need to complete due diligence on clients, and, in specific circumstances, confirm a client’s source of wealth.
“Importantly, regulated practices are required to report suspicious matters to AUSTRAC without ‘tipping off’, or informing, the client about whom the report is made. If this occurs, you will need to cease acting for your client – and should seek legal and ethical advice.”
QLS has compiled advice, checklists and resources for practitioners. The commencement of the AML/CTF obligations also means many small practices now need to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and resources are also available to support practitioners with this change.
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