The Combating the Financing of People Smuggling and Other Measures Bill 2011 has been passed by the Senate with amendments and returned to the House of Representatives for approval. (Background)

The Bill amends the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act), the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 and the Privacy Act 1988.

The primary purpose of the Bill is to reduce the risk of money transfers by remittance dealers being used to fund people smuggling ventures and other serious crimes by introducing a more comprehensive anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulatory regime for the remittance sector.

The Bill will also allow businesses regulated under the AML/CTF Act to more effectively and efficiently verify the identity of their customers by enabling reporting entities under the AML/CTF Act to use personal information held on an individual’s credit information file for the purposes of electronic verification of customer identity.