The Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor today detailed proposed measures to stop international funds transfer services being used to fund people smuggling and serious crime.
The changes are designed to improve the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing registration regime for the remittance sector.
Remittance dealers accept cash, cheques and other forms of payment in one location and arrange the payment of an equivalent amount of cash or value to someone in another location.
“We know that some international funds transfer services provided by remittance dealers are used by people in Australia to pay people smugglers and to launder the proceeds of crime.
“Money is the lifeblood of organised crime, including people smuggling, and if we can stop the flow of money we can stop the crime,” Mr O’Connor said.
“In April, we said we’d strengthen the regulation of remitters as part of our strategy to crack down on people smuggling and I invited public discussion on the proposed reforms.”
“Under the improved registration scheme, the CEO of AUSTRAC would be given the power to refuse, suspend, cancel or impose conditions on registration.”
In particular, if the CEO believed that a significant money laundering, terrorism financing or people smuggling risk existed, the CEO would refuse or cancel a person’s registration.
Under the changes the AUSTRAC CEO would consider criminal history, compliance history and ownership when deciding whether someone should be allowed to be a remitter.
The proposed changes will enable the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre to more effectively identify people providing remittance services, help protect against criminals infiltrating the sector and ensure appropriate enforcement action can be taken.
“These changes will expand the current registration scheme to cover both remittance dealers and remittance network providers.
“These changes will provide our law enforcers with another weapon to stop people smuggling operations and criminal enterprises,” Mr O’Connor said.
The paper being released today will be the basis for consultations to be conducted by AUSTRAC and the Attorney General’s Department, as part of assessing the regulatory impact of the proposed changes on industry.
The paper is available at www.ag.gov.au. Consultation on the proposed reforms will start from July 19.
Media Adviser: Jayne Stinson 0458 547 512 jayne.stinson@ag.gov.au
