Submission: Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2026
Transparency International (TI) Australia is pleased to provide the following comments and recommendations in relation to Schedule 1 and Schedule 3 of the proposed amendments to Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act).
TI Australia supports the changes to definitions of politically exposed person and the extension of powers to the AUSTRAC CEO to prohibit reporting entities from using high-risk mechanisms to provide designated service, particularly crypto ATMs. We note that these changes should support Australia's upcoming assessment under the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) guidelines and note the proposed changes would be strengthened by a concurrent change to increase the transparency of legal entity ownership, through the government's planned beneficial ownership register.