The Australian government has set out a big program of work with industry for the year ahead as it overhauls the country's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime.The Attorney-General's Department has issued a project plan, outlining "priority projects" for the year ahead and a further reform agenda to be developed beyond that.The Government says it is keen to work with industry on changes to the system. A key recommendation of a review of the AML/CTF regime earlier this year was that any reforms to the Act and rules that have regulatory impact should be co-designed by Government and industry.The project plan says any new measures will be risk-based, giving reporting entities the flexibility to implement appropriate AML/CTF compliance measures that are proportionate to their assessed level of risk.The AML/CTF regulator Austrac is to be given expanded powers to deal with the registration of remitters and more regulatory power overall. It will be given increased power to direct reporting entities to remedy contraventions.The Government wants to simplify the secrecy and access framework that governs access to and use of Austrac information.There will be some deregulation in the area of customer due diligence and streamlining of exemptions processes.Other changes will strengthen the reporting regime for cross-border transfers and bring digital currencies, stored value cards and other new payment methods under the AML/CTF regime.Record-keeping and transaction reporting requirements will be clarified and simplified, and the range of business that can form a corporate group for regulatory purposes will be expanded.Simplification, clarification and streamlining are key terms in the project plan. The Statutory Review of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, which was released in April, found that the Act and its rules were too complex. "This complexity generates uncertainty, impeding industry's ability to understand and comply with its obligations," the review said. It recommended that the AML/CTF regulator Austrac give regulated entities more help understanding their obligations. "Industry requires more assistance to understand and comply with its obligations. This is particularly the case with smaller regulated entities, which struggle to identify and understand their risks," it said.Improvements to the readability of the rules would also help regulated entities deal with their obligations.The review said there were opportunities to provide exemptions or simplified obligations for entities that pose a low risk and it recommended that the regulatory regime make better use of the risk-based approach to provide regulatory relief.At the same time, the review pointed out that the international community was calling for AML/CTF regimes to be strengthened to deal with increased threats from terrorist organisations.It recommended that Australia's regime should be extended to cover other services that pose ML/TF risk. These might include new payment types (such as digital currencies) and professional services provided by lawyers, accountants and real estate agents.It called for regulation of remitters to be strengthened and for more comprehensive reporting of cross-border movements of cash and bearer negotiable instruments worth A$10,000 or more.And it said enforcement needed to be strengthened to encourage a culture of compliance. Austrac should