Austrac finalises its new funding model

Austrac has finalised its controversial new funding model, which will see industry take over the burden of funding all of the anti-money laundering regulator's activities.

Under the old funding model industry paid for the cost of Austrac's regulatory work, while government funded its wider intelligence work. But in last year's Australian Government Budget, a new "industry contribution" model was proposed at a cost to industry of an additional A$25 million a year.

That cost will fall on the bigger groups that come under Austrac regulation.

Companies with earnings of $100 million or more will pay a levy of 0.03 per cent of earnings (the original proposal was for a levy of 0.05 per cent). The maximum charge will be $1 million.

In the case of an Australian resident company, the earnings calculation includes earnings from local and overseas operations. In the case of a foreign-owned business the charging model is based on earnings from Australian operations only.

Austrac said that about 660 of its 14,400 reporting entities would pay the industry contribution.

Reporting entities will also pay a fee with each transaction report they submit.

The change to Austrac's funding model has been hotly debated. Industry submissions on the issue have been critical of the Government's decision to put the funding outside government cost recovery guidelines, which are designed to ensure that fees such as these are efficient and justifiable.

Other submissions complained that putting most of the burden on larger companies was not justifiable.

And others complained that the beneficiaries of Austrac's work, such as the users of its data or agencies that use Austrac intelligence to recover the proceeds of crime, should also pay up.