AML/CTF rules 2025 and what firms use in 2026

A search for “aml ctf rules 2025” in October 2026 is a “which document do we open” question. The instrument on the Federal Register is the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Rules 2025. AUSTRAC tabled those rules on 29 August 2025 and described the start dates in the release note. Checked on 2 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce the Rules or that note. Who the reforms cover is /tranche-2.

What a firm actually opens

Four documents get mixed up in the same folder. Only one of them is the Rules. The others are how a practice implements them.

Two start dates, one instrument

AUSTRAC’s release note sets the commencement in stages. From 31 March 2026, changes to AML/CTF obligations start for current reporting entities. The same note says threshold transaction reporting and suspicious matter reporting stay on the previous shape until 2029. Enrolment for newly regulated sectors opened on 31 March 2026. From 1 July 2026, AML/CTF obligations start for tranche 2 entities. Confirm those sentences on the note before you diary them. This article does not restate the note.

A firm that started as a bank, and a firm that started as a conveyancer on 1 July 2026, are not on two different rulebooks for the obligations that have commenced. They are on the 2025 Rules, read with the amendments. The longer walk through what the parts cover, without this “which document” question, is AML/CTF Rules 2025 in plain English. What the new shape did to the program itself is what changed for programs.

Amendments sit on the same rules

AUSTRAC has published amendments to the AML/CTF Rules since the August 2025 tabling, including an opt-out reporting group model and targeted changes to customer due diligence and reporting. Read that page for the list. This article does not reproduce the amendment instruments. A related-entity question on this site is a reporting group.

Use the rules to write the program, then the check

The Rules are not a file you lodge. The thing you approve is the AML/CTF program: the risk assessment and the policies. How a tranche 2 firm puts that in writing is the AML/CTF program. AUSTRAC’s program overview is the official shape. This page does not reproduce it.

FreeAML is not the Rules and it does not enrol the firm. The firm suite is A$0. When the approved program says a designated matter needs an identity or entity check, the firm emails the client. 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. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. The product returns evidence. It does not decide that a service is designated.

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