The Government has introduced the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024 into the House of Representatives. Background.

If passed the Bill will extend the AML/CTF regime to certain higher-risk services provided by gatekeeper professions: real estate professionals, professional service providers including lawyers, accountants and trust and company service providers, and dealers in precious stones and metals, also known as ‘tranche two’ entities.

It will expand the list of designated services in section 6 of the AML/CTF Act to include higher-risk services provided by tranche two entities.

The Bill protects the disclosure of information or documents subject to legal professional privilege.

Other changes

• The Bill also clarifies the roles and responsibilities of a reporting entity’s governing body and its AML/CTF compliance officer, and the obligations for Australian companies operating overseas through a foreign branch of an Australian reporting entity, or a foreign subsidiary of an Australian parent company.
• The Bill reframes and clarify the core requirements for initial Customer due diligence (CDD) and ongoing CDD, clarify when enhanced CDD must be applied, and streamline the circumstances when simplified CDD may be applied.
• The current prohibition against reporting entities ‘tipping off’ their customer about the formation of a suspicion will be replaced with a new offence which will focus on preventing the disclosure of suspicious matter report (SMR) information or information related to a notice issued under section 49 or 49B of the AML/CTF Act where it would or could reasonably prejudice an investigation.
• The AML/CTF regime will be extended to additional virtual asset-related services by amending the current terminology of ‘digital currency’ to ‘virtual asset’, and inserting a new definition of ‘virtual asset’. The updated definition establishes that a virtual asset is a digital representation of value that meets the following criteria: functions as a medium of exchange, a store of economic value, unit of account or an investment, is not issued by or under the authority of a government body, and can be transferred, stored or traded electronically.
• The Bill will clarify what monetary instruments are captured by the definition of a ‘bearer negotiable instrument’ and its subsequent reporting requirements.
• The framework for electronic funds transfer instruction obligations, designated remittance arrangements and international funds transfer instruction (IFTI) reporting purposes will be modernised with an updated and simplified value transfer chain.

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