AUSTRAC cancelled, suspended or refused the renewal of 45 remittance and virtual asset service provider (VASP) registrations during the past year, removing those businesses from our registers.
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said the actions reinforce the regulator’s expectations of industry.
“The rapid movement of money across borders can create some of the highest ML/TF risks,” Mr Thomas said.
AUSTRAC’s actions have focused on businesses that lacked the operational capacity to begin or continue trading, were dormant or inactive, had not provided designated services for extended periods, were insolvent, failed to hold the appropriate registration, did not notify AUSTRAC of material changes, or otherwise involved significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk.
“Businesses with cancelled registrations can no longer operate and where appropriate, we’ve referred individuals behind these businesses to law enforcement and regulatory partners locally and overseas,” Mr Thomas said.
“Financial crime operates across borders, and we work closely with our domestic and international partners to strengthen the financial system not just in Australia, but globally.”
AUSTRAC worked with the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) on BA Digital Ventures Pty Ltd, trading as GetCoins, following customer complaints. AUSTRAC requested information in relation to the operations of GetCoins to assess their capability to manage their money laundering risks.
“This VASP was allegedly exploited by organised cryptocurrency investment scams. By working with NASC and cancelling GetCoin’s registration AUSTRAC helped to disrupt organised investment scam activity.”
AUSTRAC's focus on the payments, remittance and virtual asset sectors has continued through a range of regulatory actions in recent months, including the commencement of an investigation into Western Union and action to suspend Cryptolink’s crypto ATM network.
These activities reflect AUSTRAC's increased scrutiny of sectors identified as having heightened money laundering, terrorism financing and other serious crime risks.
Mr Thomas said the increase in regulatory oversight reflects AUSTRAC’s priorities and response to its annual risk update.
“We are proactively identifying and removing businesses that do not meet the expectation set by the registration regime and we will continue to remove businesses that pose a significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk,” Mr Thomas said.
“Our message to industry is clear: understand and manage your risks and meet your reporting obligations, or you may not be able to continue operating.”
Visit the AUSTRAC website for a full list of remitter and VASP decisions.