Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) Obligations: What This Means For Businesses?
From 1 July 2026, new AML/CTF regulations will introduce additional compliance requirements, with Breathe Accounting here to help make the…
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From 1 July 2026, important changes to Australia’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) obligations will come into effect. Introduced by AUSTRAC to help strengthen Australia’s financial system and reduce the risk of financial crime, these reforms introduce new compliance obligations for a range of professional service providers, including accountants.
While regulatory updates can sometimes feel complex, at Breathe Accounting, we will guide you through every step of the new procedures to ensure these changes are easy to understand and that the transition remains as simple and seamless as possible for our clients.
From 1 July 2026, AUSTRAC is strengthening its combat against money laundering and terrorism financing by expanding its regulatory framework to include additional industries that provide services involving financial transactions, business structures and asset management.
Businesses are required to develop and maintain an AML/CTF Program. Tailored to the specific business activities, this program should be designed to help protect it from the risk of being exploited for money laundering and terrorism financing.
Customer Due Diligence (CDD) helps businesses confirm client identities and maintain accurate information throughout the client relationship. Enhanced customer identification and verification process and requirements will be the most impactful changes for clients.
CDD requirements apply both at the beginning of a client relationship and, in some circumstances, throughout the engagement.
They include:
These checks are becoming a standard legal requirement across many professional and financial industries in Australia
With the changes to AML/CTF regulations, certain accounting and advisory services will now fall under AUSTRAC’s designated services framework. As part of these changes, some services provided by Breathe Accounting will be subject to additional AML/CTF compliance obligations and client verification requirements, such as:
From 1 July 2026, Breathe Accounting will join the designated services regulated by AUSTRAC. As such, our obligations in terms of information verification will change. For most clients, these changes will simply introduce additional verification and compliance steps as part of onboarding or ongoing engagement processes.
As part of these, you may be asked to:
These processes are designed to:
Any information collected as part of these requirements will continue to be handled securely and in accordance with our privacy and confidentiality obligations.
We remain committed to keeping the process as simple and transparent as possible to ensure these requirements are handled professionally, securely and with as little disruption as possible. Our team will be here to support you through every step of the process and to answer any questions you might have regarding these new processes and regulations.
If you have any questions about how these reforms may affect your business, our team is here to help. Please feel free to contact our office to discuss any questions about these upcoming changes.