AML/CTF compliance for Australian conveyancers — what AUSTRAC and the OAIC expect

A primary-source briefing for conveyancers and settlement agents who become reporting entities under AML/CTF Tranche 2. Quotes are verbatim from AUSTRAC's January 2026 sector starter kit and the OAIC's CC BY 4.0 templates.

Published 14 May 2026 · privacycovered.com.au

What AUSTRAC says about conveyancers

"Australia is one of the most attractive real estate markets globally. Australia's 2024 money laundering national risk assessment assessed real estate as having a very high and stable money laundering vulnerability. Criminals can exploit real estate at all stages of the money laundering cycle."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Money laundering: Inherent risk".

"Real estate is highly vulnerable to exploitation by criminals when laundering money obtained from serious crimes. This means that conveyancers are vulnerable to exploitation by criminals who need help purchasing or selling properties with the proceeds of crime."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Money laundering: Inherent risk" rationale table.

"Conveyancing involves helping in the planning or execution of the sale, purchase or transfer of real estate. The conveyancer, settlement agent or property solicitor typically undertakes work to plan, execute or give effect to the transfer of real estate from one person to another. Conveyancing services are vulnerable to exploitation as they can be used by criminals to transfer property titles to individuals or entities who wouldn't attract the attention of law enforcement."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Designated services: Inherent risk".

Your designated service (Item 1 of Table 6)

"Helping a person with planning or executing a transaction to buy, sell or transfer real estate. This includes acting on someone's behalf. (Item 1, Table 6 of the AML/CTF Act)"

"Criminals may use conveyancers to: help legitimise a property transaction involving criminal proceeds; seek advice on creating distance between the criminal and their property."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Designated services: Inherent risk".

Trust accounts — the high-risk surface AUSTRAC names

"Conveyancers are required to hold funds received from buyers in a statutory trust account, as opposed to an ordinary practice bank account. When a buyer or real estate agent transfers a deposit to the conveyancer, they'll hold it in their trust account until they're instructed to send those funds to the seller. Criminals can misuse trust accounts to move illicit money while hiding its origin from the beneficiary… Criminal proceeds can also be commingled with legitimate client funds, making it difficult for law enforcement to detect suspicious activity."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Common ML/TF methods — Trust accounts".

"Criminals looking to purchase real estate with large amounts of cash may give the cash to a conveyancer or deposit it into their statutory trust account directly."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Designated services: Risk factors — High value physical currency transactions".

Risk indicators AUSTRAC tells conveyancers to watch for

"High-value real estate markets are attractive to people seeking to launder illicit funds gained from criminal activity, as they can launder more funds in one transaction… Lenders perform in-depth due diligence on clients and properties before providing funds as part of a mortgage. Where a property is bought without a mortgage, there's a significant difference in scrutiny on the buyer."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Designated services: Risk factors — High value and unfinanced transactions".

"The client or parties involved: pushes for transactions to be completed urgently, applies undue pressure or makes last minute changes to financing; gives instructions on a property purchase or sale that are unusual or lack a clear financial purchase; requests multiple changes after being asked for more information; begins purchasing a property without physically inspecting it; asks the conveyancer to hold funds in trust longer than required, then issues an unusual instruction for disbursement."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Indicators of unusual or criminal behaviour — Client behaviour".

"Domestic and foreign shell companies commonly feature in Australian money laundering investigations. They're used to create a layer between suspicious transactions and the criminals. Shell companies often use dummy directors or shareholders on official record who have no actual involvement with the company's activities. These individuals are used to conceal beneficial ownership and complicate the identification and disruption of money laundering."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Risk assessment — January 2026, "Common ML/TF methods — Shell companies".

Single-employee practices

"If you are a single employee practice, you will do all these roles… If you are a single employee practice, you will have all these responsibilities."

— AUSTRAC, Conveyancers — Customise guide — January 2026, "Personnel — Step 1: Identify all AML/CTF-related roles".

The Privacy Act overlay — what the OAIC expects

Once you are a reporting entity, the personal information you collect for customer due diligence is governed by the Privacy Act 1988 regardless of your practice's turnover. The OAIC publishes the framework:

"The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's (OAIC) Privacy management framework outlines steps to take to meet your ongoing compliance obligations under Australian Privacy Principle (APP) 1.2. A key tool to help you meet these requirements is to develop and implement a privacy management plan."

— OAIC, Privacy management plan template, distributed under CC BY 4.0.

"We collect your personal information to comply with the 'Customer Due Diligence' requirements in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). This includes to: establish and verify your identity before providing certain services to you or the person you are acting on behalf of; assess and manage potential money laundering, terrorism financing, proliferation financing risks or related compliance risks associated with the provision of our services; make reports required by law under the AML/CTF Act; meet record keeping obligations under the AML/CTF Act."

— OAIC, Template privacy collection notice for reporting entities under the AML/CTF Act, distributed under CC BY 4.0.

What this means in practice

For a conveyancing practice, the 1 July 2026 minimum surface is:

• Enrolment with AUSTRAC and an appointed AML/CTF Compliance Officer.
• Customer Due Diligence (initial, enhanced, periodic, trigger-event) before acting on a transaction.
• Source-of-funds / source-of-wealth checks for high-value or unfinanced purchases.
• PEP and sanctions screening at onboarding.
• A 7-year record retention scheme (s.107 transactions, s.113 CDD, s.116 program).
• A documented AML/CTF program approved by the governing body under s.26F.
• An OAIC-compliant privacy program: APP 1.3 policy, APP 5 collection notice at the CDD step, APP 8 cross-border disclosure record, and a Notifiable Data Breach response procedure under Part IIIC.

For the full statutory framework and a 6-week countdown plan, see the Tranche 2 explainer.

This page reproduces verbatim passages from AUSTRAC's January 2026 sector starter kits (used under AUSTRAC's published licence) and the OAIC's Privacy Management Plan template and AML/CTF Privacy Collection Notice template (used under CC BY 4.0). It is not legal advice. The OAIC and AUSTRAC have not endorsed privacycovered.com.au or any product or service offered through it. Engage qualified Australian counsel to confirm the obligations and documents fit your practice's circumstances.