Confirm your service and your registration
Money services sit in the financial sector group of designated services: accepting an instruction to transfer money or property for a customer, exchanging one currency for another, and exchanging virtual assets for money or money for virtual assets. A service only counts when it has a geographical link to Australia. Check who and what AUSTRAC regulates against the services you actually provide.
Registration is the part that catches new businesses out, because it is a step beyond enrolment. AUSTRAC's own words are that you "must be registered with us before you provide remittance services", and it's against the law to provide them in Australia without registering. The remittance sector register is public. Check the remittance service provider requirements before you take a first customer.
There are four registration categories, each with its own set of AUSTRAC registration questions: remittance network provider, independent remittance dealer, remittance network provider affiliate, and virtual asset service provider. A network provider is generally responsible for registering its affiliates, and a business can only register as an affiliate on its own behalf if it is, or is applying to be, an independent remittance service provider. Read AUSTRAC's registration guidance and pick the category before you start the application.
Registration is for three years. You can apply to renew in the 90 days before it ends, and if you lodge in that window your registration continues until AUSTRAC decides. Miss it and the registration lapses, you come off the register, and you can no longer provide remittance or virtual asset designated services, with a later application treated as a new registration rather than a renewal. AUSTRAC may take up to 90 days to assess an application, and that clock restarts from the date you provide any further information it asks for. You cannot start providing remittance or virtual asset services until it has approved your registration. Changes of circumstance go in within 14 days, or within seven days where a network provider is told by an affiliate.
Most professional firms do not need this step. AUSTRAC's position is that lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, conveyancers and dealers in precious metals and stones generally do not need to register, and that registration typically only applies to money remitters and people providing specialised virtual asset services.
Virtual assets, and what to call them
AUSTRAC's own words are that "the terms 'virtual asset' and 'virtual asset service provider' have replaced the previous terms 'digital currency' and 'digital currency exchange provider'". We write virtual asset service providers (digital currency exchanges) across this site, so the page carries the regulator's term and still matches what a customer searches for.
The virtual asset designated services sit at items 46A, 50A, 50B and 50C, and items 46A, 50A and 50B are only regulated where the business providing them carries on business as a virtual asset service provider. AUSTRAC's own example of the limit: item 46A does not capture a criminal defence lawyer who stores a client's cold wallet in their safe, because that lawyer does not carry on business as a virtual asset service provider. Read AUSTRAC's virtual asset designated services guidance.
If you applied to register for a newly regulated virtual asset service before 29 July 2026, you can keep providing it until AUSTRAC decides. If you are already a registered remittance or virtual asset service provider, you keep your status but must update your details before your next scheduled renewal.
What follows from all that is the practical sequence. You check every customer, from first-time crypto buyers to companies sending money overseas, and the evidence and the decision stay with the transaction.
Prepare and review the customer file
- Set up the business. Start by confirming enrolment and registration, your compliance officer, staff responsibilities, and an approved risk assessment and AML/CTF program. AUSTRAC's enrol or register guidance covers both steps.
- Identify the customer. Next, record the customer, entity type, representatives and relevant beneficial owners. For a business customer you'll want to confirm the authority of the person giving the instruction.
- Complete CDD. This is where you collect identity evidence, understand the transfer and assess risk. Resolve any screening concerns and apply enhanced measures where they're needed. Keep in mind that a Link result is part of the evidence, not an approval to transfer.
- Record the decision. The responsible reviewer checks the current evidence, records the reason and assigns any outstanding actions. If delayed CDD is permitted, please record the applicable conditions and deadlines, because it isn't a general exemption.
- Monitor and review. Ongoing CDD is the part that distinguishes this sector from a one-off professional engagement. Changes in transfer pattern, destination, funding or beneficial ownership can require further review, so it helps to keep decisions and follow-up work connected to the customer.
Report through AUSTRAC Online
International funds transfer instructions
An instruction to transfer money or property into or out of Australia is reportable as an IFTI, and the reporting obligation sits with the business that sends or receives the instruction. AUSTRAC's wording on the deadline: "If you send an IFTI out of Australia or receive an IFTI into Australia, you must submit an IFTI report to us within 10 business days." There are two forms, IFTI-E for financial institutions and IFTI-DRA for remittance service providers, casinos and other entities that are not financial institutions.
IFTI reporting was not switched off by the 2026 reforms. The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Transitional Rules 2026 "preserve the operation of the pre-31 March 2026 IFTI reporting requirements", and you "must continue submitting IFTI reports until your international value transfer service (IVTS) reporting transition date, which will be on or after 31 March 2029". Check AUSTRAC's IFTI guidance for the reportable details and the forms.
The travel rule
The travel rule is a different obligation, not an alternative report, and both can apply to the same transfer. It is an information-passing duty rather than a report to AUSTRAC: collect and verify the payer information, collect the payee's full name, and pass the transfer message on before giving effect to the transfer. It applies to financial institutions, remittance service providers and virtual asset service providers, and it expressly covers transferring "virtual assets, such as cryptocurrency, from a payer's account or custodial wallet". It does not apply to a transfer that solely involves physical currency or other tangible property. So for a cross-border transfer, read the travel rule as the duty on the message and the IFTI as the duty to report. Read AUSTRAC's travel rule overview.
Suspicious matter reports
Please record when a reportable suspicion arose and restrict access to the matter. Terrorism-financing suspicions have a 24-hour deadline from that point, while other SMRs are generally due within three business days after the day of suspicion. Escalate concerns promptly to authorised staff and take care to protect against tipping off. Check the SMR rules, forms and deadlines.
Threshold transaction reports
A designated service involving A$10,000 or more in physical cash, or the foreign-currency equivalent, triggers a TTR, and you submit it within ten business days after the transaction day. An electronic transfer is not physical cash. If a customer pays you A$10,000 or more in notes and coins to fund a transfer, that cash receipt triggers a TTR. Check AUSTRAC's TTR guidance.
Annual compliance reports
The next reporting period is 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, with submission open from 1 July to 30 September 2027. An administrator submits it through your AUSTRAC Online account. Check who must report and the applicable exceptions.
Whichever report it is, please use the current AUSTRAC Online forms, and keep the submitted version, lodgement reference and receipt with the restricted reporting record. Just remember that creating a draft or downloading an export does not establish lodgement or acceptance.
Retain the evidence
Keep CDD records for seven years after the business relationship ends or an occasional transaction is completed. Transaction and program records have different retention triggers, so it's best to set retention by record type and make sure you keep access when staff or providers change. AUSTRAC's record-keeping requirements have the full detail.
Our own side of this is built under ShareRing's ISO 27001 information security programme, and the identity evidence stays with your transaction record rather than with us.
If you'd like to try it for yourself, you can start free in a couple of minutes. Every account comes with a sandbox full of sample customers, so you can explore the whole workflow before anything real happens.