Australia’s financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC has set out its regulatory priorities for 2025–26, signalling a pivot to more assertive, risk-driven supervision as it readies to bring tens of thousands of “tranche two” businesses into the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime and tightens its focus on cash and digital currencies.
“This year marks a regulatory shift – from regulation that primarily checks for compliance to one focussed on substantive risks and harms,” Mr Thomas said. “AUSTRAC will look at risk and behaviour at an industry and sector level rather than focussing solely on individual entities.”
The regulator said it is scaling up its workforce and technology ahead of major legislative reforms due to start in July next year, with around 80,000 additional businesses expected to come under AUSTRAC’s oversight. The tranche two cohort spans real estate agents, lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, trust and company service providers, dealers in precious metals and stones, and other designated service providers.
AUSTRAC is also enhancing its intelligence capabilities to identify sectors that are not adequately managing risk, and will use those insights to inform both supervision and enforcement. Priority areas include digital currency exchanges and other virtual asset service providers, as well as cash‑intensive industries.
“We are also focussing efforts where the risk of harm is greatest, for example in digital currencies, which allow funds to move across borders quickly, cheaply and virtually anonymously,” Mr Thomas said. “Cash is also highly susceptible to money laundering because it is anonymous, accessible and widely accepted. While the use of cash in Australia is declining, more than $100 billion is still in circulation.
“We see money laundering risks play out in cash intensive businesses as well as through digital currency exchanges and other virtual asset service providers that facilitate instantaneous global transfers.”
Alongside the priorities, AUSTRAC has published a statement of regulatory expectations outlining how it intends to approach both current reporting entities and those preparing to enter the regime. The regulator says it will be more explicit about sector-wide failings and the standards it expects.
The reforms aim to bring Australia closer to global standards set by the Financial Action Task Force after years of calls to extend AML/CTF obligations to designated non-financial businesses and professions. AUSTRAC’s sharpened posture follows a series of high-profile enforcement actions in recent years, including a $700 million penalty against Commonwealth Bank (2018), a $1.3 billion penalty against Westpac (2020) and a $450 million penalty against Crown’s Melbourne and Perth casinos (2023).
“We’re about to embark on the most ambitious overhaul of Australia’s anti-money laundering laws in a generation and we’re determined to get it right,” Mr Thomas said.
