Anti Money Laundering Bill Made Law

On 7 December 2006, the Parliament passed the Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) (Act). The new Act is the culmination of two public exposure drafts and two Senate Inquiries. The result is a new regime for regulating financial service providers, the gambling industry and bullion dealers that is intended to prevent money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF).

The Act changes the way that financial service providers interact with clients. It requires reporting entities to identify and verify clients, which means they are likely to need to collect more personal information about clients. The Act also imposes monitoring, reporting and compliance obligations on regulated entities, which will require significant changes to systems and process and training of staff.