AUSTRAC HAS stressed that the 15-month moratorium on civil penalties does not apply to the deadline just passed to submit reports on anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing programs.

“[The 15-month moratorium] does not apply to the compliance reporting deadline. If an entity has not submitted a compliance report, then they must submit one immediately. If they believe they can’t, then they should contact AUSTRAC,” said a spokesperson.

The regulator has a range of options available before taking civil action, and they stressed they would take a graduated approach before resorting to the courts.

“Our goal is to ensure compliance and assist reporting entities with compliance”, but they said the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act is clear that AUSTRAC can apply to the Federal Court for a civil penalty order.

“If the court is satisfied that a person – individual, trust, partnership, company, corporation or body politic – has contravened a civil penalty provision, then it may order the person to pay a pecuniary penalty,” the spokesperson said.

The regulator this month began to release its own interpretations of the laws to provide further assistance to those covered by the new regime, with many still unclear about their obligations, or unaware they provide services that are caught by the regime.

AUSTRAC says it is still too early to say how many reports on designated services under the anti-money laundering regime they have received, but it is satisfied with the response after a late rush of enquiries and responses to its 31 March deadline.

“We’ve had a strong response, particularly in the last few days before 31 March when we received around 500 calls to our AUSTRAC help desk to request final assistance. As we expected, many of these calls were made just in time before the deadline,”said the spokesperson.

AUSTRAC said they now faced the “huge task” of assessing the quality of the reports and following up with reporting entities on a case-by-case basis to seek further information if the response isn’t adequate.

The reports are the first chance for AUSTRAC to get a real picture of where they need to concentrate their compliance activities.

They will also be used to further their understanding of how industry segments are affected and what needs to be done to assist them in their progress, she said.

See Enforcing responsibility this issue