Following passage of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2017, which is expected to commence on 1 April 2018, AUSTRAC has published draft AML/CTF Rules on digital currency for public consultation .

The Amendment Act imposes mandatory registration and compliance obligations on digital currency exchange providers, including:

• customer identification and due diligence;
• adopt and maintain an AML/CTF program, which includes requirements to identify, manage and mitigate money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) risk;
•  suspicious matter reporting;
• threshold transaction reporting;
• record-keeping requirements.

The draft Rules propose adding a new Chapter 76 (Digital Currency Register), amending Chapters 3, 4, 10, 12, 18, 19, 37, 45, 57, 70 and 74, and deleting Chapters 44 and 53.