Insights
Poor legal advice led to AML/CTF breaches at Afterpay
In June 2019, AUSTRAC ordered Afterpay to appoint an external auditor after the agency identified concerns with Afterpay’s compliance with anti-money-laundering laws. The final report from external independent auditor Neil Jeans was provided to AUSTRAC today. In the final report, Jeans broadly praised Afterpay’s compliance efforts and attributed the breaches to poor advice from an…
Read MoreTech transition proves a tough act for banks
– By Supratim Adhikari Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer’s carefully laid out plans to leverage new technology to cut costs and transform the bank’s processes now lie in tatters, as the bank’s management digs in to contain the fallout from the allegations levelled against it by Austrac. Less than two weeks ago, Hartzer was touting…
Read MoreFATF caves as Australia keeps propping up property market with black money
by Nathan Lynch — 20 November 2019 Welcome to the dark side of the Great Australian Dream, an investigation by Nathan Lynch. Australia is facetiously referred to as the Lucky Country for its ability to ship off endless boatloads of minerals, surfing the waves of economic good fortune with a “she’ll be right” swagger. But there’s another more important driver…
Read MoreFATF suspends Australia’s AML law evaluation
The Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) has suspended the evaluation of financial crime laws mid-way through an examination of Australia’s progress in the area. A FATF spokesman said, “In October, the FATF decided to temporarily pause the start of all scheduled follow-up assessments – this is not an Australia specific decision.” But was there more to…
Read MoreNAB may face heavy penalties after admitting money-laundering breaches
Hot on the heels of Westpac’s announcement three weeks ago that it has provisioned hundreds of millions of dollars for additional remediation costs and a potential fine by AUSTRAC, over its failure to report “a large number” of International Funds Transfer Instructions (IFTIs) it was NABs turn to make an announcement. In its annual report…
Read MoreNewsletter – 13 November 2019
What we’re hearing… Welcome to the November edition of our newsletter. Last month we provided some early insights from our AML Pulse survey. As a reminder the survey was designed to help regulated entities understand gaps in their AML Programs and ML/TF Risk Assessments, and responses from 12 industry groups spanning 10 countries were received.…
Read MoreProperty continues to be the AML weak link in Australia
Australia is still lagging behind global standards in the developed world when it comes to combating the flow of illicit money entering the property market. AUSTRAC has estimated that there were AUD$1billion worth of suspicious transactions in the Australian property market from China in the 2016 fiscal year. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has…
Read MoreThe Solicitor Regulation Authority: One in five UK law firms fails to comply with money laundering rules
Following the discovery of law firms not complying with anti-money laundering regulations, the Solicitor Regulation Authority (SRA) is planning to launch money laundering investigations into 7,000 law firms. Solicitor firms that fail to comply will potentially face enforcement action. In March 2019, the SRA wrote to 400 firms asking them to demonstrate compliance with the…
Read MoreArctic Intelligence expands global reach with a new UK based client
Arctic Intelligence has launched AML content tailored for UK and expanded its global presence with the addition of a new UK based client, Castle Harbour Securities. Castle Harbour, a boutique financial firm, offers a wide range of merchant banking services from their offices in London and Bermuda. Graham Cade, Chief Executive Officer, commented “Following a…
Read MoreAUSTRAC releases mutual banking sector money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment
Yesterday, AUSTRAC released the Mutual Banking Sector Risk Assessment report which concluded that the mutual banking sector has a high level of vulnerability to financial crime with the main threat being money laundering and with the overall money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessed as medium. According to the report, the mutual banking sector has…
Read More