What a free AML tool should include versus a subscription

Platform, ID check, and subscription are three products

Buyers type “free AML” and land on three different things. A platform helps the firm run its program. An ID check confirms a person, sometimes only to a VOI standard. A subscription sells seats, and then often sells verifications as well. Picking a free ID photo when you needed a program, or a seat plan when you needed one check, is how small firms overpay or under-collect.

What the free side should include

• A firm account you can keep without a monthly AML seat.
• A place to start an ML/TF risk assessment and revisit it. On this site that is /risk-assessment.
• Staff training the firm can point to. See /training.
• A path to customer due diligence when a designated service needs it, from /aml-check.
• An outcome you can put on the matter file.
• Client-pays, so the default story to the client is coherent. The commercial version is client-pays KYC.
• Email as the way the client is asked to complete the check.

AUSTRAC’s own starter kits are free and official. They are templates and guidance, including the real estate program starter kit. They do not verify the customer. A downloaded kit plus a passport photo is not a CDD system. The obligations those kits point at are summarised on /tranche-2 and in AUSTRAC’s initial CDD overview.

What stays on the meter

Document verification, biometric matching, sanctions and PEP screening, and company extracts cost money at the source. A tool that promises all of that with no payer is leaving something out. On FreeAML the payer can be the client. The firm suite stays at A$0. Read the current KYC and KYB amounts on /pricing rather than a number repeated in an article.

The step-by-step for sending a check is how to do a free AML check in Australia. A wider catalogue of no-fee resources is free AML compliance tools. This page is the buying definition those two assume.

How to read the other public models

A monthly plan plus verifications

easyAML’s pricing page publishes monthly plans and separate verification charges, with credits on some plans. ClearAML’s pricing page publishes monthly plans and separate per-check items. Judge them on whether you want a seat, what is bundled, and who pays the check. Confirm every figure there. FreeAML’s comparison is the firm fee: A$0, with client-pays verification.

A complimentary centre, searches charged

InfoTrack’s AML/CTF Compliance Centre describes the centre as complimentary, with searches charged, and says those searches can be disbursed. That is a coherent model if your firm already works in that stack: program workflows in the centre, identity and registry searches on the meter. You do not have to buy that stack to run customer due diligence. FreeAML is the A$0 firm suite and a client-pays verification when the matter needs one.

A free register

SimpleAML’s conveyancer comparison describes a free browser app for program documents, training records, risk, and a matter register, stored on the device. That can be the paperwork layer for a small practice. It is not the same product as a client-pays KYC or KYB check. We compare the two jobs in conveyancing AML and SimpleAML.

Customer-pays as a credit against a licence

AML Guard’s pricing article describes customer-paid checks that credit the agency’s subscription, up to the licence fee. Read their page for the current rule. The commercial idea is related. The structure is different: a subscription remains. FreeAML does not rebate a seat, because the firm suite is A$0.

A short buying test

1. If you stopped paying tomorrow, which records would you still hold, and could you export them?
2. Does “free” include the program and training, the check, or only a template?
3. When a company or trust is the customer, is beneficial ownership in the check or an extra you discover later?
4. Can the client pay the verification, and is that disclosed as your disbursement rather than as a government charge? See charging the client.
5. Is identity verification being sold as the whole of CDD? If yes, read VOI and CDD before you sign.

For most Tranche 2 firms the honest stack is: AUSTRAC for the rules and the starter kit, your program customised to the practice, and a check the client can pay when the designated service needs one. That is the FreeAML wedge. It is not a promise that every database query on earth is free.

Frequently Asked Questions