The Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison has issued a Joint Communiqué: Fourth Industry Roundtable on Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing with representatives of the Financial Services Sector.

It announces that he has held a fourth roundtable meeting in Sydney on 9 September with representatives of the Australian financial services sector, to finalise agreement on outstanding high level issues related to proposed anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) reforms and prepare for the release of draft exposure legislation. 

Government and industry agreed that standards for customer due diligence would be set in legislation with greater detail to be
developed in Rules agreed between AUSTRAC and industry.

The meeting agreed that the framework for reporting of suspicious transactions would be enhanced and consultations with industry would be undertaken to develop appropriate risk triggers to be incorporated in Rules.

It was agreed that transition issues will need to be the subject of further consultation due to the complexity and potential cost to the sector.

It was also agreed that there would be a consultative structure established which would facilitate the
development of the details of Rules and Guidelines.

It was agreed that the Government should proceed to release exposure draft legislation that will form the basis of future consultations on more detailed implementation issues.