McR turns 100
McR turns 100

New AML/CTF regime

Information for clients

From 1 July 2026 Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regime will also apply to law firms.  We set out below what is changing, why it matters, and what this means for you.

If you have any other questions, please reach out to your contact at McCullough Robertson.

What is changing?

  • The Federal Government has introduced sweeping changes to Australia’s AML/CTF regime.
  • The current regime applies to banks, financial institutions and similar organisations.
  • From 1 July 2026, the regime will also apply to law firms and other professional service providers such as accountants, real estate agents and trust and company service providers when they provide designated services.
  • This means McCullough Robertson will be a reporting entity under the AML/CTF regime from 1 July.
  • Some of our new obligations under the AML/CTF regime will affect you.
  • Before we provide legal services to you, we will need to:
    • verify your identity and the identity of other people related to your matter;
    • understand the nature and purpose of your matter; and
    • assess and manage the risk of money laundering, terrorism financing or proliferation financing related to your matter.
  • We may need to ask for additional information about you or your matter at the start of or during your matter.
  • We also have ongoing obligations to monitor AML/CTF risk and look out for unusual or suspicious activity.

There is more information about how the changes will impact you under ‘What will change for you’.

What is the purpose of the new regime?

  • Some transactions that lawyers assist with, such as property and corporate transactions, can be misused by criminals to launder money or facilitate terrorism or proliferation financing if safeguards are not in place.
  • Money laundering is often connected to serious crimes including fraud, scams and drug trafficking.
  • The AML/CTF regime is designed to:
    • prevent criminals from laundering the proceeds of crime;
    • prevent funds being used to support terrorism or proliferation financing; and
    • protect the integrity of Australia’s financial and corporate systems.

What will change for you?

From 1 July 2026, we must conduct:

  • initial customer due diligence (CDD) before we provide legal services to you; and
  • ongoing CDD during the course of your matter.

Identity verification

We must check and verify the identity of:

  • you if you are an individual;
  • any person on whose behalf you are receiving our services;
  • any person acting on your behalf; and
  • any person who is a beneficial owner of the client entity (for example, where the client is a company or trust). This includes anyone who owns 25% or more of the client entity or who otherwise controls it.
  • For longer term engagements, we will periodically update this information.

Additional questions

We may ask you additional questions about you and your matter, including about:

  • parties involved;
  • nature and purpose of your matter;
  • ownership or control of entities involved; and
  • in higher risk cases, your source of funds and source of wealth.
  • During the course of your matter, we must also keep an eye out for unusual or suspicious activity.

AML platform

In most cases, we will use an electronic CDD platform to:

  • collect and verify identity information;
  • obtain ownership and related information; and
  • conduct sanctions, politically exposed persons, adverse media and related checks.
  • The costs we incur when we use this CDD platform to obtain information and conduct searches and checks will not be passed on to you as separate disbursement.

AML/CTF terms

Our AML/CTF Terms are available on our website and will apply when steps are taken to comply with the AML/CTF regime and our related policies. These terms apply in addition to any other terms that apply to our provision of services to you.

How will your information be handled?

Use and disclosure of information

Any information we collect about you will be kept secure in accordance with our information technology and security policies.  Personal information will be handled in accordance with our  Privacy Policy.

Information collected through the CDD platform will be stored securely by our service provider, First AML.  First AML will handle personal information in accordance with its security standards and Privacy Policy.

Disclosure to AUSTRAC

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) is the regulator of Australia’s AML/CTF regime.  We are required to submit a report to AUSTRAC if we form a suspicion on reasonable grounds that:

  • a person is not who they claim to be; or
  • a service we provide to you involves money laundering, terrorism financing, proliferation financing or another crime.

If we consider making, or if we do make, a report to AUSTRAC, the law prohibits us from telling you about that.

There is more information about this in our AML/CTF Terms, including about when we may have to decline to act, suspend our services, or terminate our engagement with you.

Will this slow down how quickly we can help you?

We will integrate our new AML/CTF compliance processes into our standard onboarding processes so any disruption to you is minimal.

There may be some delay at the start of a matter, particularly:

  • while identity verification is completed;
  • where your ownership structure is complex or involves overseas entities; or
  • if we need additional information from you.

We will use our CDD platform to conduct identity checks so this process as efficient and user friendly as possible for you.

What happens if you don’t provide information we ask for?

To comply with the new AML/CTF regime and our related policies, we must complete initial CDD before we provide legal services to you.

If we do not receive the information we need or there is some other reason we cannot complete initial or ongoing CDD:

  • we may not be able to commence work for you;
  • we may need to suspend our services; or
  • in some cases, we may have to decline to act or cease acting.

There is more information about this in our AML/CTF Terms.

How are we preparing for the new regime?

We are actively preparing for the new AML/CTF regime so we will be compliant from 1 July 2026.

Our aim is to meet our legal obligations while continuing to provide legal services to you in our usual efficient and commercial way.

Please reach out to your contact at McCullough Robertson if you have any questions.