The Government has announced a review of Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws: Terms of reference and Issues Paper.

The AML/CTF Act, Rules and Regulations together cover more than 13,800 businesses, including domestic and foreign owned banks, money transfer businesses (known as remittance dealers) and casinos.

Two topics related to the AML/CTF regime are not covered in this review: potential enhancements to the existing customer due diligence measures and the AUSTRAC supervisory levy are the subject of separate reviews.

The review will consider issues such as whether designated non-financial businesses and professions (such as lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, trust and company service providers and high value dealers) and the services they provide should be regulated under the regime.

It will also consider changes in technology such as the development of online identity verification systems.