AUSTRAC has announced its regulatory priorities for 2024, detailing the plan to improve the financial system’s resilience to serious crimes. Per the official announcement, AUSTRAC's priorities include an ongoing focus on businesses understanding, mitigating, and managing money laundering and terrorism financing risks they face, particularly across the banking, gambling, and remittance sectors which face higher risks.

Additional sectors will be under scrutiny to uplift Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) capability and to ensure legislative compliance. The sectors are: Digital Currency Exchanges (DCEs);  Payment platforms;  Bullion;  Non-Bank Lenders and Financiers. Officials from the company stated that an important aspect of AUSTRAC’s regulatory work is engagement with businesses to identify areas for improvement early to prevent problems from becoming systemic.

These priorities signal its ongoing intent to work with businesses to embed a culture of vigilance, ensuring everyone at every level is aware of the threat of financial abuse and criminal exploitation. Criminals tend to target businesses with weak anti-money laundering settings. This is why AUSTRAC’s regulation, through education and supervision, could be important to safeguarding communities and financial systems in Australia from financial harm.

AUSTRAC's regulatory enforcement Furthermore, the company also highlighted that although the announcement calls out certain sectors, all industries sectors should expect interaction and engagement from AUSTRAC. AUSTRAC’s regulatory priorities call out those areas in which businesses may be scrutinised against. This includes board and senior management oversight around the culture and risk management practises, effective transaction monitoring, and managing outsourcing arrangements.

While AUSTRAC will focus its regulatory activities on these priority areas, it will retain the capacity to investigate other areas that are important to complying with AML/CTF obligations. The announcement stated that where AUSTRAC identifies emerging issues or serious non-compliance, it will promptly intervene to address such matters, which may result in increased engagement, assessment, notifications, and in some cases AUSTRAC enforcement action. .