Remittance service providers in Australia must generally be registered with us. They have obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the Act).
Businesses that transfer money (for example, to customer’s family and friends overseas), are known as remittance service providers or money transfer businesses.
Unregistered remittance service providers are a crime risk
Unregistered remittance service providers are committing a serious offence. They’re at a high risk of being targeted to launder money gained from the proceeds of criminal activities, such as:
- terrorism
- human trafficking and forced labour
- child exploitation
- illegal firearm sales
- drug trafficking
- tax evasion
- telephone and email scams.
Video: How to transfer money the right way
Watch our video on why remittance services need to be registered. It also outlines the risks posed to the community by unregistered remittance dealers.
Search the remittance sector register
A registered remittance service provider will ask you to show identification documents when you transfer money. If you’re not asked for identification, the business probably isn’t registered with us.
You can check if a remittance service provider is registered on our remittance sector register.
Report an unregistered remittance service provider
We all play a role in combatting money laundering, terrorism financing and proliferation financing. If you use an unregistered remittance dealer, your money could be mixed in activities that harm our community.
That’s why it’s important you tell us about any remittance dealer you think might be unregistered. You can anonymously report to us using our suspected unregistered remittance dealer report form.
Unsure if you provide remittance services
If you’re unsure if you provide remittance services, you can answer some questions to check if you need to enrol and register and have AML/CTF obligations.
If you provide a service that helps customers send money to someone in another location, you’re probably providing a remittance service. Even if you only occasionally provide these services you need to register with us. This also includes offering hawala.
If you’re providing remittance services without being registered, stop and contact us to register now. You must not provide these services until you’re registered.
If you provide remittance services without being registered, you can face penalties including a fine of up to $420,000 or up to 7 years in prison, or both.
This guidance sets out how we interpret certain Australian legislation, along with associated Rules and regulations. Australian courts are ultimately responsible for interpreting these laws and determining if any provisions of these laws are contravened.
The examples and scenarios in this guidance are meant to help explain our interpretation of these laws. They’re not exhaustive or meant to cover every possible scenario.
This guidance provides general information and isn't a substitute for legal advice. This guidance avoids legal language wherever possible and it might include generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.