Banks and other organisations covered by new anti-money laundering legislation have less than a week to go before they have to start complying with the next phase of AML/CTF law but they have only a vague idea of what they are supposed to be doing.June 12 is the starting date for reporting entities to start meeting their compliance reporting and correspondent banking obligations. The correspondent banking rules are uncontroversial; they only affect financial institutions, which are used to rules requiring them to check out the credentials of the financial institutions they deal with offshore.The compliance reporting obligations affect all reporting entities, including gaming companies and bullion dealers, and are a central part of the legislation. So far Austrac, which has regulatory oversight of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, has published just one page of rules setting out what it expects from reporting entities. That page sets out the periods covered by the compliance reporting rules and the deadlines for reporting."Reporting entities don't know what they have to report on," said Alison Deitz, a partner at law firm Deacons. "People don't know what level of detail is going to be required."A spokesman for Austrac said: "Austrac has extended the deadline for the first AML/CTF compliance report to 31 March 2008 to provide industry with sufficient lead time to make adequate preparations and put systems and structures in place to assist reporting entities in meeting their new obligations. "As announced last month, at our industry consultative forum being held later this month, Austrac will be providing information and indicative questions on what will need to be included in the first compliance report."Deitz said there were other problem areas. "Reporting entities need to have their identification procedures in place by the end of the year to start reporting next year. Those will be big systems projects and so far there are no rules. There is not enough time to do it."The Austrac spokesman said: "The customer identification obligations are not tied to reporting obligations. Reporting obligations under the new legislation do not come into effect until December 2008."Austrac made rules at the end of March relating to customer ID. Those Rules in draft form had been available since July 2006 on Austrac's website. "These Rules have not changed substantially since that time. Industry was extensively involved in the development of these Rules."Deitz said: "The legislation covers remittance providers, which it defines very broadly. We assume that part of the law is intended to cover remittance companies like Western Union, but the definition is so broad it could cover lawyers handing over a title deed. "There are a number of professional and industry bodies lobbying on issues like that but Austrac is yet to give guidance."AML/CTF is principles-based regulation - each organisation is able to make an assessment of its risk and establish an appropriate program. This is what affected industries asked for but it is leading edge regulation and many organisations are still struggling with the question of where to set