Simplified CDD: low-risk scenarios that are allowed

People search “simplified CDD Australia” when a small firm wants to apply simplified customer due diligence because the client is local and the matter is small. Checked against AUSTRAC’s page on assigning customer risk ratings on 4 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. The ordinary requirement sits on customer due diligence requirements. The heavier path is enhanced customer due diligence. The sector map is /tranche-2.

A lighter measure needs a line in the program

Simplified customer due diligence is the name firms use for doing less, on purpose, in a case the rules and the program treat as lower risk. AUSTRAC’s page on assigning customer risk ratings is the frame for how ratings are thought about. This page does not reproduce the rules and does not publish a list of allowed scenarios.

The test you can use on Monday is narrow. Point to the sentence in your program that names this customer type and the lighter measure. If you cannot point to it, collect what the ordinary requirement asks. “We know them” and “the invoice is small” are not that sentence.

• Find the sentence. The scenario is allowed, for you, when the program says so. A blog cannot add a scenario the program left out.
• Write the lighter measure. Less means a stated difference, not a blank file. If you cannot say what you still do, you have not simplified anything. You have skipped.
• Do not use comfort as risk. A local address, a small fee, or a repeat client is not a rating. The rating page is about the method in your program.
• High risk does not shrink. If the file has a PEP, a sanctions question, or a fact your program calls higher risk, you are not in a lighter measure. Look at enhanced due diligence instead.

Allowed, skipped, or ordinary

Three labels get used for the same thin file. Only one of them is simplified CDD. Make the staff choose the label that matches a sentence they can show.

Where the simplified page stops

This page is the permission you must be able to point to. It is not the ordinary requirement and it is not the enhanced path. Those are customer due diligence requirements and enhanced customer due diligence.

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. Labelling a customer low risk is not included in the firm suite, and the label does not wipe a check the program still requires. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. FreeAML does not decide that simplified CDD applies or list the low-risk cases for you.

Frequently Asked Questions