National Legal Profession Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism Financing Guidance
28 June 2024
Purpose
This Guidance is intended to raise awareness of the risk of money laundering and terrorism financing to prevent legal practitioners from being unwittingly misused by financial criminals. It also provides high level guidance about actions that legal practitioners can take now to mitigate the risk of exposure to being involved in money laundering or terrorism financing. It is not legal advice. It does not reflect practitioners’ obligations under any anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) statutory regime.
Intended Audience
The main areas giving rise to the potential risk of money laundering and terrorism financing in the legal sector are associated with financial transactions. While the Guidance Notes use the terms ‘legal practice’ and ‘legal practitioner’, the primary target audience is solicitors, and especially solicitors who prepare for, or undertake, transactional work. Australian lawyers who practise exclusively as, or in the manner of, a barrister are forbidden in their legal practice from undertaking transactional work for a client or from holding, investing or disbursing funds for any person. Accordingly, the Guidance Notes address solicitors whose legal practices are associated with transactional work, including the holding, investment and disposal of clients’ funds. Barristers may be interested to review the suite of documents to help them understand the principles that guide the thinking and actions of their instructing solicitors and to develop their understanding of the phenomena of money laundering and terrorism financing and the steps being taken to prevent them.
The Guidance comprises:
- Overview
- Guidance Note No 1 – Why Should I Care About Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing?
- Guidance Note No 2 – What Does the Criminal Law Currently Provide, and What Are My Cash Reporting Obligations?
- Guidance Note No 3 – What Are My Professional Obligations?
- Guidance Note No 4 – What Does Money Laundering Look Like?
- Guidance Note No 5 – What Does Terrorism Financing Look Like?
- Guidance Note No 6 – How Do I Identify and Assess My Risk?
- Guidance Note No 7 – How Do I Mitigate and Manage My Risk?
- Guidance Note No 8 – How Do I Undertake Client Due Diligence?
- Guidance Note No 9 – How Do I Ascertain Source of Funds?
- Guidance Note No 10 – How Do I Check Whether Someone is a PEP?
- Guidance Note No 11 – Ceasing or Declining to Act
- Workshop Notes for Identifying and Assessing Risk – Example
- Workshop Notes – Case Studies
- Red Flags List for Legal Practitioners
A collated version of the Guidance is available here.
The Guidance Notes, Workshop Notes and Red Flags List
Each Guidance Note has been designed both as a stand-alone document and as a member of a suite. Each Note contains references to other Notes in the suite reflecting a holistic approach to risk management. The Workshop Notes may be read by practitioners but are designed to be used as teaching tools. The ‘Example’ illustrates the information in Guidance Note No 6. The Case Studies are hypothetical situations for discussion.
Last Updated on 22/11/2024