Accountants have a key role to play in the fight against financial crime, with the Australian Government expanding the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws to certain new sectors including ‘gatekeeper professionals’ such as accountants, lawyers and real-estate professionals.

Accountants who offer ‘designated services’, such as helping clients buy, sell or transfer real property or legal entities; creating, operating or managing legal entities; receiving, holding, controlling or disbursing assets; acting as or appointing a nominee shareholder; or providing registered office addresses, will be required to implement an AML/CTF program for their business.

What this means, says Anthony Quinn, founder and CEO of multi-award-winning regtech Arctic Intelligence, is that accounting professionals in these types of services must comply with the new AML/CTF laws. They have until the end of March 2026 to enrol and register with Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and until 1 July 2026 to implement the AML/CTF program controls.

“Australia is really just playing catch-up with these new rules,” he says. “Other countries have had these laws in place for gatekeepers for many years, but the urgency is growing because the international Financial Action Task Force is set to conduct an evaluation of Australia’s compliance with international money laundering regulations in 2027.”

Compliance in the cloud

The vast majority of CAs are either sole operators or working in relatively small practices, meaning the compliance burden will fall on an individual who’s also wearing many other hats.

Arctic Intelligence’s AML Accelerate Platform is a fully cloud-hosted solution designed to help sole operators and SMEs identify the risks and build effective AML/CTF programs.

For a single annual fee, the AML Accelerate Platform helps gatekeeper professionals conduct a guided ML/TF/PF risk assessment specifically tailored towards accountants and bookkeepers. Its AML program has been updated to reflect the new AML/CTF reform guidance issued by AUSTRAC.

Larger firms with more complex operations

Larger firms with more complex operations might be more suited to Arctic Intelligence’s Risk Assessment Platform. Apart from ML/TF/PF assessment, it comes with an enterprise-wide risk module that is fully configurable and can be further tailored and aligned to any risk assessment methodology, any inherent risk indicators and comes with a library of controls and control tests to assess the operational effectiveness across their entire organisation.

The time to act is now

Quinn says awareness of these rules within the profession is still relatively low. However, AUSTRAC is doing a fantastic job of raising awareness and providing tools and guidance, including the much-anticipated starter kit.

“Whilst the starter program kits will undoubtedly help sole practitioners and smaller practices, medium and larger accounting practices will face a significant challenge in meeting their compliance obligations,” he says.

“Unlike when these reforms first came into effect back in 2006, there are now plenty of affordable regtech solutions, like those we offer at Arctic Intelligence, that can help regulated businesses of all sizes and sectors meet regulatory expectations.”

Claim your discount

Arctic Intelligence is a CA ANZ Member Benefits Partner. Visit the Australian or New Zealand website to get a 15% discount on the AML Accelerate Platform (use code CAANZ15PERC) or a free, 14-day trial. Larger firms wanting to design and configure their own financial crime risk assessment approach can organise a demonstration of the Risk Assessment Platform here.

Offer expires 31 December 2026.