Money laundering cop AUSTRAC to face grilling under new financial crime inquiry
Charlotte Grieve, 23 June 2021
The financial intelligence watchdog and big four banks will be probed under a new parliamentary inquiry designed to measure the efficiency and adequacy of the Australia’s anti-money laundering regime.
The Senate approved a motion brought by Labor Senator Deborah O’Neill on Wednesday to launch a formal inquiry into the effectiveness of the laws, regulators and companies tasked with stamping out illicit fund flows.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has recently scored a number of high profile victories, fining Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank a combined $2 billion since 2018 over systemic breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML-CTF) Act.
The dual-track regulator, that feeds intelligence from banks to law enforcement, has become a much feared operator and has now set its sights on cleaning up the casino industry, revealing this month it was conducting simultaneous enforcement investigations on Crown, Star and SkyCity.
