The Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department released its Consultation Paper, Modernising Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime on 20 April 2023 (Consultation).
Since then the headlines have been captured by the long-awaited proposed extension of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulation to cover certain activities of the so-called gatekeeper professions. If implemented, that extension will certainly have important implications for lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, corporate and trust service providers, and dealers in certain high value goods such as jewellers. The extension appears likely to increase the number of reporting entities by a factor of 10.
However, what is also deserving of interest is the potential significance of some of the other changes that are being considered as part of the Consultation.
