iscover AML obligation gaps: A ‘corporate lawyer’ level of understanding needed
BusinessThe complexities of anti-money laundering obligations for SMEs are apparent, particularly where trust structures can involve eight or nine parties, and firms need almost a “corporate-lawyer-level understanding of commercial structures”, research finds.
One anti-money laundering specialist said that with the latest changes to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF), businesses are having to take on a corporate lawyer’s understanding of which individuals need to be verified.
"There can be eight or nine parties in a trust, and the law expects real estate agents, accountants and law firms to have almost a corporate lawyer’s understanding of commercial structures just to work out who needs to be verified," Visibl managing director Kaan Yuksel said.
"The legislation honestly feels more complex for small and medium businesses than it does for the banks already in Tranche 1 of the regulation," Yuksel said.
According to Australia’s AML Readiness Report 2026, commissioned by Visibl, 75.4 per cent of respondent businesses believed that verification of identity (VOI) checks alone were enough to satisfy legal obligations.
"Verification of identity is only the first part of initial due diligence, and an even smaller part when it comes to non-individual customers. In a company, trust or partnership onboarding, you also need to verify the entity exists and verify the identities of its beneficial owners, who go through those same steps," Yuksel said.
Further, the data found that more than half are missing at least one other required check, meaning 42.3 per cent surveyed had compliance gaps.
The gaps included missing “sanctions and screening for politically exposed persons, beneficial ownership verification or full know-your-customer or know-your-business compliance checks”, the data found.
In addition, its findings revealed that 28.3 per cent of businesses relying on identity checks alone don’t consistently verify the beneficial owners of companies and trusts they onboard.
For the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), solely relying on identity checks alone poses a high risk for money laundering.
Visibl’s research acknowledged that since many businesses are not verifying who is behind the business, many are operating on a false sense of compliance.
Thus, beneficial ownership checks should be a built-in step for every non-individual customer, not a judgment call left to individual staff – it should be “mapped, risk-rated and screened against sanctions, PEP and negative media lists automatically”, Visibl said.
The AML/CTF legislation came into effect on 1 July, with obligations that “will apply to certain services typically provided by accountants, lawyers and real estate businesses”, which requires businesses to “develop and maintain an AML/CTF program, apply enhanced customer due diligence and comply with certain reporting obligations”.
AUSTRAC sent out its first fines to unregistered accounting, real estate and jewellery businesses earlier this month.
On 20 August 2026, AUSTRAC showed that 13,550 accounting and professional services firms had registered.
On 1 October 2026, the number of registered firms jumped to 13,780.
“We are actively looking for businesses that haven’t enrolled, and we will issue more infringement notices where necessary, so if you have obligations under the scheme, now is the time to come forward, get in touch with AUSTRAC and get enrolled,” AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said earlier this month.
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