The Australian anti-money laundering regulator has fined one of the world's largest remittance networks A$225,600 for 26 alleged breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006. The penalty levied against Ria Financial Services Australia is the first such fine, and the first time the regulator has used its powers to fine reporting entities under the AML/CTF legislation.The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre said Ria had failed to register its affiliates and had continued to provide services through businesses that were not registered as affiliates, despite warnings from the regulator.Ria has agreed to pay the infringement notice, without admitting any wrongdoing, to avoid further enforcement action over the matter. (In cases where the fine is not paid or the misconduct continues, AUSTRAC can initiate further enforcement action.)Ria has around 650 affiliates in Australia and is part of a global network of agents in 207,000 locations across 135 countries. AUSTRAC said it was the world's third-largest remittance network.John Schmidt, chief executive of AUSTRAC, said the matter highlighted the importance of the remitter registration scheme, which requires all businesses to be registered with AUSTRAC before providing remittance services."The scheme was established to ensure that remittance service providers implement the necessary measures to identify, manage and mitigate money laundering and other risks. Money laundering points to other crimes that the Australian community does not tolerate, including fraud, people smuggling, tax evasion and terrorism financing," Schmidt said."The industry should be on notice that we are supervising your behaviour and we will take action."AUSTRAC has published a public version of the Remittance Sector Register on its website to allow customers and other businesses to check the registration status of a remitter.This is an edited version of an article first published by the Compliance Complete Service of Thomson Reuters Accelus.