T+O+M BLOG

ACAMS (The Association of Certified Anti-money Laundering Specialists) annual conference - The Assembly Australasia Conference – took place on 19-20th June.

400 attendees heard from the who’s who of financial crime experts about the current reforms and challenges facing the industry.

Of the reforms discussed, here’s a high level summary of where things sit with the Tranche 2 reforms:

• There is a real probability that Australia will be downgraded and grey-listed by the FATF (Global Financial crime governing body)
• This is because AML regimes still have not yet been extended to industries such as accountancy practices, law firms, real estate agents etc (“Tranche 2”), something first discussed 16 years ago
• Whilst the Government is in a consultation phase to redress these issues - which should mean the introduction of Tranche 2 to target those industries for AML - realistically any regulatory decisions off the back of consultation will not come into play until 2024 and with an unclear deadline for implementation of any AML requirements by these targeted Tranche 2 industries
• As such, there remains doubt whether these measures if/when implemented will be sufficient to meet FATF requirements – it could be a case of too little, too late. If Australia were to experience the same teething issues as New Zealand on implementation then they have left little leeway for correcting mistakes around implementation. 

If you are in an industry affected by AML reforms, please get in touch with one of our Compliance and Financial Crime team members for more information.