SMSF practitioners having to address new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) requirements with clients should present the measures as greater assurance their firm is legitimate and trustworthy, NowInfinity general manager Kate Anderson has said.
Speaking with selfmanagedsuper, Anderson said that while SMSF accountants, who were brought into the AML/CTF regime from 1 July under a second tranche of reforms, had adapted to them, there was further work to be done in explaining the extra verification steps required when dealing with clients.
“Accountants were included in tranche two because when the government did a national risk assessment, it flagged accountants for money laundering vulnerability because they sit at the control points. They are present at an establishment and when structuring transactions for their clients, which makes the profession attractive to criminals, and the regulator’s response was to introduce these changes,” she said.
“What AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) is asking is for you to slow down at the start of setting up an SMSF for a client, properly understand who you’re dealing with, confirm their identity and then make a call on a risk before they go any further, and that flows into the ATO risk assessment for fund set-up that you already know about.
“I am telling them to turn this compliance piece into a source of confidence, of added value and competitive advantage for them.
“It means they can say to clients: ‘You are dealing with an accounting firm that does the right thing and all the clients that walk through our door – we know who they are. We’re not dealing with any dodgy characters.’
“We’re doing this identity check on all of our clients as part of our business and you are dealing with a professional organisation.’
“This is a good thing that we know our clients and who we are dealing with, and once accountants get their processes set up it will be an easy transition to make.”
Jason Spits
SENIOR JOURNALIST
Jason is a senior journalist with Benchmark Media and writes for the selfmanagedsuper website and magazine and smstrusteenews website. He has covered financial services since 1999 and has written about life insurance, superannuation, investment management and financial advice, in both a freelance and in-house capacity, and also did a brief stint as a media manager for an industry association. He has been the editor of trade titles Money Management and Financial Standard, and was most recently senior journalist with life insurance title Riskinfo.
Articles by Jason