AUSTRAC’s 2024 Regulatory Priorities: New sector focuses and more responsibility for boards

Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulator – AUSTRAC – has released its statement of 2024 regulatory priorities. AUSTRAC’s priorities are divided into two categories: “enduring priorities” and “increased regulatory focuses”. All regulated entities should pay close attention to this recent insight from AUSTRAC into what it intends to home in on during the next year.

AUSTRAC’s enduring priorities are:

• Mitigating and managing money laundering and terrorism-financing risk.
• Ensuring that reporting entities have effective AML/CTF programs setting out how they will comply with the AML/CTF Act and AML/CTF Rules.
• Ensuring that relevant matters are reported to AUSTRAC. In particular, international funds transfer instructions, threshold transaction reports and suspicious matter reports.
• Closely monitoring high risk sectors, namely banking, gambling and remittance.

AUSTRAC’s areas of increased regulatory focus for 2024 are the following sectors:

• Digital currency exchanges.
• Payment platforms.
• Bullion.
• Non-bank lenders and financiers.

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