On 5 March, MLex from Lexis Nexis, reported that Australia has failed to bring lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and trust and company service providers under the country’s AML law despite promising to do so back in 2006. It says that a review by FATF will likely highlight this gap again if the government fails to act. It reviews the position since 2006 and the “heel dragging”. It concludes that, given that Australia hasn’t made any changes following FATF’s comments on this issue in 2015, and was ranked non-compliant again on this point by FATF in 2018, it is unclear whether another slap-on-the-wrist warning by FATF will push the Australian government to make any changes.
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