Reference

Glossary

The terms the rules use, in plain English.

Adverse media: News and public reports that link a person or business to crime or misconduct. The screening provider searches for them; an officer reads what it finds and decides whether it is credible.
AML/CTF: Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. The Act and Rules that your business is regulated under.
AUSTRAC: The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, the regulator for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing, and the agency that receives suspicious matter and threshold reports.
Beneficial owner: A person who ultimately owns or controls a company, trust or other entity: usually someone who owns a significant share of it, directly or through other entities, or who controls it. eAML asks who they are so that the customer is not just the name on the front.
Case: One sale, matter, engagement or over-the-counter sale in eAML. The people on it are checked, and it ends with a risk rating and an approval.
Customer due diligence (CDD): Knowing who your customer is and why they are using you: identifying and verifying them, understanding their purpose, and screening them.
Designated service: The regulated activity that makes a business a reporting entity: for example brokering a real estate sale, the table 6 services of accountants and lawyers, or a jeweller’s cash sale at or over the threshold.
Enhanced due diligence (EDD): The extra steps for a person rated higher risk: more questions, evidence of where the money comes from, adverse media screening, and sign-off from a senior officer.
Funder: A person who pays for part of a purchase on someone else’s behalf. eAML checks a funder as it checks an owner.
Know your customer (KYC): The identification and verification part of customer due diligence.
Moment: The event that makes eAML look at a rule: a person is added, an answer is saved, a check comes back, a payment is recorded, and so on.
Politically exposed person (PEP): Someone who holds, or has held, a prominent public position or function (domestic, foreign, or in an international organisation), and their immediate family and close associates. A PEP is not wrongdoing, but the risk of bribery and corruption is higher, so more is asked.
Reporting threshold: For a jeweller, the amount at which a sale becomes a designated service: an amount of cash and virtual assets, or of bullion, that the AML/CTF Act sets (linked payments by the same customer count together).
Risk appetite: Your firm’s choice of what to do about each risk factor, for example to ask for a bank statement or a statutory declaration. See “How the rules work”.
Risk factor: A reason a person or a deal carries more risk, such as living in a high-risk country, paying in cash, or being owned through a trust. Each factor belongs to one of five groups: customer, transaction, delivery channel, country and technology.
Risk rating (tier): Low, medium or high. A rule can raise it; only the case officer’s final decision can lower it.
Rule: A statement of when eAML looks at something, what has to be true, and what it does about it. See “How the rules work”.
Sanctions: Restrictions on dealing with named people and businesses. eAML screens against the Australian list (DFAT Consolidated List) and the screening provider’s lists.
Senior officer approval: The sign-off of a senior person at the firm before a case can go ahead. Required for every case, except that a jeweller’s sale that is not high risk is decided by the compliance officer.
Source of funds: Where the money for this transaction comes from.
Source of wealth: How the person’s overall wealth was built up.
Suspicious matter report (SMR): A report to AUSTRAC when you suspect, on reasonable grounds, that something is related to a crime or to terrorism financing. After one is made about a customer you keep serving, eAML rates them high risk and applies enhanced due diligence.
Third party: Someone who is not the customer but pays, receives or acts for them: a lender, a family member, a company connected to them, a representative.
Threshold transaction report (TTR): A report to AUSTRAC of a large payment in physical currency, above the amount the Act sets.
Virtual asset: A digital representation of value that can be traded or transferred, such as a cryptocurrency. For a jeweller, virtual assets count towards the reporting threshold like cash.
Vendor: The seller of a property. eAML calls the seller the vendor.