Are AUSTRAC's webinars for Compliance Officers compulsory?
Not compulsory, but attendance is treated as a strong signal of a Compliance Officer's commitment to keeping current with regulatory expectations and is useful evidence in a compliance review.
There's no specific rule in the AML/CTF Act or Rules that says a CO must attend AUSTRAC's webinars. However, attendance is treated as one indicator of a Compliance Officer's commitment to keeping current with regulatory expectations.
What this means in practice:
- Attendance is a strong signal to AUSTRAC that the CO is engaged. In a compliance review or investigation, evidence of webinar attendance helps demonstrate good faith engagement with the regulator.
- Content is genuinely useful. AUSTRAC's webinars cover sector-specific guidance, common pitfalls, recent enforcement patterns and upcoming reform - information that doesn't always make it into the published guidance pages.
- Audience targeting. AUSTRAC pitches these sessions at Compliance Officers, principal contacts, directors and business owners - not front-line staff.
easyAML's own webinar program complements AUSTRAC's by translating the regulatory content into platform-specific operational terms. Both are worth attending - easyAML's covers what to do in your platform; AUSTRAC's covers what the regulator expects from you regardless of platform.
Subscribe to AUSTRAC's webinar feed via the Industry and business hub on austrac.gov.au.