The Government has introduced the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2017 into Parliament to increase the powers of the Australian Transactions and Reporting Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and to regulate digital currency exchange providers. Background.
UPDATE: The Bill received Royal Assent on 14 December 2017.
If passed, the Bill will:
- bring digital currency exchange providers under the regulation of AUSTRAC;
- strengthen AUSTRAC’s investigation and enforcement powers;
- increase police and customs officers’ search and seizure powers at the border; and
- deregulate low-risk industry sectors such as cash-in-transit.
AUSTRAC’s investigation and enforcement powers
AUSTRAC’s powers will be strengthened by:
- giving the AUSTRAC CEO the power to issue infringement notices for a greater range of regulatory offences, and
- allowing the AUSTRAC CEO to issue a remedial direction to a reporting entity to retrospectively comply with an obligation that has been breached.
Digital currency exchange providers
Digital currency exchange providers (which deal in convertible digital currencies, such as bitcoin, which are backed by a cryptographic algorithm) will be required to enrol and register on a digital currency exchange register maintained by AUSTRAC, and adopt and maintain an AML and counter terrorism financing (CTF) program.
They will also be required to identify and verify the identities of their customers, and report suspicious matters and transactions of AUS$10,000 or more to AUSTRAC.
Regulatory relief
The Bill will provide regulatory relief by:
- clarifying due diligence obligations relating to correspondent banking relationships and broadening the scope of these relationships;
- de-regulating the cash-in-transit sector, insurance intermediaries and general insurance providers;
- qualifying the term ‘in the course of carrying on a business’, and
- allowing related bodies corporate to share information.
