AUSTRAC Compliance Reporting period is approaching, and it’s time to start thinking about conducting an independent annual review.
Who needs to report?
Compliance Reporting is required for:
- Venues that are licensed for 16 or more electronic gaming machines, who do not provide any other designated services.
- Member of a designated business group (DBG)
What is an Independent Review?
An independent review is an assessment of Part A of your AML/CTF compliance program. Additionally, it checks that you’re complying with your program, and the program is still suitable for your business.
Some areas the review examine should include:
- whether Part A of your AML/CTF compliance program is current and adequately assesses that your policies and procedures are adequate to manage your money laundering/terrorism financing risks
- any changes to your money laundering/terrorism financing risk profile
- any changes to your AML/CTF compliance practices and policies
- how well your employees understand and comply with your AUSTRAC program
- how well the business responded to previous recommendations
- whether your AML/CTF employee training program (Staff Awareness Training Program) is adequate and effective
- whether your compliance officer has enough seniority and authority
- how well your transaction monitoring systems are working in identifying suspicious matters
Compliance report
All questions in the compliance report refer to your business activities from 1 January to 31 December. Most importantly, once your independent review has been conducted, you must complete and submit the AUSTRAC compliance report between 2 January and 31 March.
Do penalties apply for failing to submit an AML/CTF compliance report?
Yes. Failure to submit an AML/CTF compliance report can result in:
- an infringement notice of up to $12,600 if the owner is a company or $2,520 if the owner is an individual; or
- a civil penalty order of up to $21 million for a company or up to $4.2 million for an individual.
Provision of false or misleading information in an AML/CTF compliance report is a criminal offense and can incur a penalty of imprisonment for ten years or $2.1 million, or both.
RCA Group can assist you with your annual Compliance Report.