The VerifiMe® Blog

A customer who sees a financial planner and is then referred to an accountant to set up a company or family trust now passes through two AML/CTF regimes, run by two reporting entities, under two different sets of rules. Without the right infrastructure, that customer will be asked to prove who they are twice, within weeks of each other. This referral path is one of the most common in Australian wealth management. Since the AML/CTF reforms, it is also one of the most interesting, because the planner and the accountant now sit on either side of an important line in the legislation.

An identity check is where AML/CTF compliance begins, not where it ends. Since 1 July 2026, real estate agents, accountants, lawyers and other Tranche 2 businesses have carried the full weight of Australia's AML/CTF regime. Much current guidance rightly notes that an ID check alone does not cover ongoing monitoring or reporting. The practical question is how those obligations should be met, and what role a platform should play.

The question we're asked almost daily: "Can't we just use the check the other firm has already done?" The formal answer is reliance, and reliance is real. Read on to understand your reliance obligations and better solutions!

If you verify customers for a living, you already know the pattern. The same person walks into a transaction, gets asked for the same passport and driver's licence, and goes through the same process — for you, and then again for the next business in the chain, and the next. VerifiOnce changes that. This post is an introduction to what it is, what it isn't, and how it fits alongside VerifiMe.

From 1 July 2026, accountants join the list of professions captured by Australia's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act). For most practices, this prompts the same first question: do I now have to re-do identity verification on every client? The honest answer is more nuanced than the headlines suggest — and understanding that nuance is the difference between a calm, proportionate transition and a costly over-correction.

Privacy considerations must be front of mind for every business captured by the tranche 2 AML/CTF reforms.

Wondering whether the starter kit is right for your practice and how to implement it effectively, this guide breaks down everything you need to know.

AUSTRAC's starter kits for accountants, lawyers, and conveyancers have arrived. For many small practices, they represent a welcome compliance pathway—pre-drafted policies, risk assessment templates, and customer due diligence procedures designed specifically for your profession.

In our first risk assessment blog, we explained what risk assessment is and why it's mandatory from 1 July, 2026. Now let's get practical: How does customer risk assessment actually work?