A designated service is a service listed in section 6 of the AML/CTF Act. 

Designated services are regulated under the AML/CTF Act because they have been identified as posing a risk for money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. 

You must comply with AML/CTF obligations in relation to your provision of designated services that have a geographical link to Australia. 

Designated services include a range of business activities in:

• financial services
• bullion
• gambling
• remittance
• virtual assets
• real estate
• professional services
• precious metals, stones and products. 

 A person that provides any of these services is a reporting entity. 

An instruction for the transfer of money controlled by a customer to another person, where:

• the transfer instruction is carried out or passed on electronically
• the transfer is within the same financial institution or between financial institutions. 

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 sections 5, 8 and 9

A machine for playing a game where the game is both:

• played for money or anything else of value
• a game of chance or of mixed chance and skill. 

For example, a poker machine.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 section 5

A remittance service provider that uses its own products, platforms or systems to provide remittance services to customers. 

An independent remittance dealer may own or control a number of branches.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 section 75C

Key personnel means each individual who is any of the following:

• an individual with primary responsibility for the governance and executive decisions of the business (this may include an individual or multiple individuals who are part of a group)
• a beneficial owner of the business
• an individual who makes decisions or participates in making decisions that affect the whole or a major part of the business
• the AML/CTF compliance officer of the business.

For a business that is an individual (sole trader), key personnel means the individual.

See

AML/CTF Rules 2025 section 1-4 Definitions

Turning the proceeds of crime into funds or assets that seem legitimate.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 section 5

Criminal Code 1995 Division 400

You’re an ordering institution if you accept an instruction for a transfer of value on behalf of a payer in the course of carrying on a business.

Circumstances where you may be an ordering institution include:

• receiving the value that’s to be transferred from the payer or another person on their behalf
• holding the value to be transferred in an account or on deposit, including in a virtual asset wallet
• where you’re authorised under an arrangement with the payer to transfer the value from a third-party deposit taker or credit provider
• arranging for the transfer of value from the payer under an offsetting arrangement with the beneficiary institution.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 subsections 63A(1) to (4)

AML/CTF Rules section 8-1: Determination of who is an ordering institution

A permanent establishment is your place at or through which you carry on any activities or business. It also includes a place where you’re carrying on activities or business through an agent.

If you, or an agent acting on your behalf, provide a service while operating on a mobile basis or while travelling in a particular country, you are taken to provide the service through a permanent establishment in that country.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 section 21

Coins and printed money (of Australia or a foreign country) that’s designated as legal tender, and circulates and is used and accepted as a medium of exchange in the country of issue.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 section 5

An entity that allows affiliates to use its brand, products, platforms or systems to provide remittance services to customers.

See

AML/CTF Act 2006 section 75(C)