AUSTRAC's purpose is to protect the integrity of Australia's financial system and contribute to the administration of justice through our expertise in countering money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
As Australia's financial intelligence unit (FIU), AUSTRAC collects, retains, analyses and disseminates financial intelligence to revenue, law enforcement, national security, social justice, regulatory and other partner agencies in Australia and overseas. We identify potential money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) cases and provide financial intelligence that enables partner agencies to detect ML/TF activity, investigate financial crimes and secure prosecutions. This supports national priorities to maximise revenue collection, protect national security, apprehend criminals and protect the integrity of Australia's financial markets.
As Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulator, we educate, monitor and work to improve the effectiveness of reporting entities' compliance with the requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act) and the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 (FTR Act). In some circumstances, we seek to enforce compliance with these Acts through more formal mechanisms.
These regulatory activities have two key goals:
- to improve the integrity (both quantity and quality) of transaction reports received by AUSTRAC to assist the FIU and through it, AUSTRAC's partner agencies, in the furtherance of their activities
- to strengthen reporting entities against use of their services by criminals for money laundering and terrorism financing (ML/TF) purposes.
In 2009-10 AUSTRAC's supervisory approach moved from start-up activities to business as usual. The application of the Policy (Civil Penalty Orders) Principles 2006 (Policy Principles), which provided reporting entities with a period of assisted compliance after the phasing in of obligations under the AML/CTF Act, ended in March 2010.
Consolidating AUSTRAC's business-as-usual supervisory activities will continue in 2010-11.
A key focus for AUSTRAC over 2009-10 was to increase coverage across the regulated sector by matching different supervisory tools and techniques to different industry sectors.
In 2010-11 the focus on improved coverage continues with greater emphasis on targeting our supervisory activities towards those entities where improvements in regulatory compliance are likely to yield the highest impact on achieving our key goals.
