Bank statements for AML: when asking is over-collection

People search “AML bank statement request” when a sales agent is about to ask a buyer for six months of statements on an ordinary purchase. Checked against AUSTRAC’s enhanced customer due diligence guidance on 4 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. Checking an account name is a different job, on bank account verification for real estate. When enhancement actually applies is on enhanced customer due diligence. The sector map is /tranche-2.

Identity is not a statement pack

Over-collection is asking for more than the program requires for the risk you have recorded. On an ordinary residential purchase, the program usually wants the customer identified and the risk rated. A PDF of half a year of spending does not identify a person. It is a source-of-funds document, and only if your enhanced path says so.

Staff reach for statements because they feel thorough. Thorough against the wrong list is how a file collects a client’s whole financial life for no decision you wrote down. If the risk rating does not say enhanced, do not ask. If it does, ask for what that part of the program names, and stop there; this page does not publish a document list.

• Start from the risk line. Low or standard in your program means the standard collection. It does not mean “plus statements, to be safe.”
• Name why, on the file. “Enhanced, because the program’s factor applies” is a reason. “The agent felt unsure” is not.
• Do not take the other party’s statements. The seller’s banking is not the buyer’s identity. Collect on your customer.
• One account name is a different page. Confirming where deposit money sits is not six months of transactions.

Sort the request before you email it

The principal can give the front desk a one-line rule: do not ask for statements unless the compliance officer has marked the file enhanced. That single rule prevents a Saturday agent from inventing a bank pack. The officer marks enhancement. The desk does not.

Where the statement page stops

This page is the over-collection line for statements. It is not account-name verification and it is not the enhanced-due-diligence article. Those are bank account verification for real estate and enhanced customer due diligence. FreeAML does not decide that a statement is required.

The firm suite is A$0. The identity check the program does require is client-pays.

What the client pays

On FreeAML the firm suite is A$0. The firm emails the client a link. Verification is client-pays. On the public list a personal KYC check is A$20 and a company or trust KYB check is A$40. Use KYB when the customer is a company or a trust. A bank statement the program never required is not a product in the firm suite, and collecting it is not included. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. FreeAML does not decide that a bank statement is required on a particular file.

Frequently Asked Questions