Austrac has issued Public Legal Interpretation 10 (PLI 10) Agency and the AML/CTF Act.

As the AML/CTF Act does not define an ‘agent’ or an ‘agency’ arrangement, Austrac issued this interpretation to set out its views on the principles of agency under this Act.

The interpretation includes the common law principles of agency; agency for the purposes of customer identification and the identification of agents of customers who receive designated services from reporting entities; and the implications of agency on reporting obligations.

PLI No. 6 ‘Suspicious matter and suspect transactions reports’, originally published on 26 September 2008, has been re-published to reflect AUSTRAC’s views on the principles of agency as they affect the reporting of suspicious matter reports.

AUSTRAC intends to republish PLI No. 3 ‘Registration as a provider of registrable designated remittance services’ to reflect legislative amendments in the Crimes Legislation (Serious and Organised Crime) Act (No. 2) 2010 which took effect on 20 February 2010. This republished PLI will also reflect AUSTRAC’s views on the principles of agency as they apply to designated remittance arrangements.