Australia To Beef Up Anti-Laundering Procedures

by Carla Johnson, Investors Offshore.com

06 November 2002

Reports in the Australian media this week have suggested that the country is looking to strengthen its anti-money laundering regulations in an attempt to call a halt to terrorist financing, laundering activities, and tax evasion.

Speaking last week, former Australian Federal Police Officer and current Commonwealth Bank Head of Security, John Guerts warned of an increase in identity-related fraud in metropolitan Sydney banks, and suggested that this indicated the potential use of these establishments as channels for the financing of terrorism.

Although, according to the ABC News service, Mr Guerts has subsequently refused to speak on the matter, the Director of Austrac, the government's anti-money laundering regulator was not so reticent, revealing that there has been an increase in the number of suspicious transactions reported by banks and financial institutions over the past decade and a half.

Questioned as to whether this increase might be linked to attempts by terrorist groups to launder money, Neil Jensen explained that: 'A very, very small number of those have been reported to us. We've issued guidance...in reponse to United Nations Security Council resolutions, and that has prompted information to be provided to us, but it has been a very small amount of information.'

Mr Jensen explained that 'red flags' for banks and other institutions could include accounts which have lain dormant for a while and suddenly receive a large deposit followed swiftly by withdrawal of the funds, or - even more strightforwardly - transactions involving those organisations or individuals named as terrorists by the United Nations.

He went on to reveal that in order to combat the rising numbers of identity-related frauds being committed in Australia, the authorities are looking to strengthen the 'hundred point identification system' currently employed when new bank accounts are opened.

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