The Financial Planning Association of Australia has told financial advisors not to be concerned about possible compliance costs when the gov...

The Financial Planning Association of Australia has told financial advisors not to be concerned about possible compliance costs when the government releases its new anti-money laundering legislation. It has been agreed that any new requirements will be technology neutral, so smaller businesses will not have to make expensive upgrades to their systems to comply.

The long-awaited legislation is now imminent with representatives of the financial services industry and the federal government having recently agreed high level principles. Although it is not known when draft legislation will be released, representatives said they were “keen to get the regime in place as soon as possible”.

“I wouldn’t say planners should be afraid, but we certainly want financial planners, in particular FPA members, to be interested in the issue and provide us with feedback,” FPA manager policy John Anning was quoted as saying in the local media.

“We’ll be responding to the draft legislation and it will be crucial that we have member input so we get a regime that is workable and which produces the minimum requirements necessary to prevent money laundering,” he said.

At an industry round table meeting last week on anti-money laundering hosted by the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Chris Ellison, only the high level principles of any future legislation were agreed upon. The meeting was attended by financial services industry representatives including the FPA, the Investment and Financial Services Association and the Australian Bankers Association.

The legislation itself, the regulations beneath and the guidelines for industry have yet to be agreed, so according to Mr Anning, there is still scope for intense consultation during which industry participants can express views.

Mr Anning also cleaned up recent confusion over whether clients who already have a bank account would need be identified again under the new rules.

Even though it had previously been agreed that such customers, who are already identified under the Financial Transactions Reporting Act, would not have to be re-identified, Mr Anning said that there was the possibility that high risk clients might still have to be re-identified, pending further discussions.