Compliance officer notification
The standard rule is to notify AUSTRAC within 14 days of appointing the officer. For newly regulated businesses the transitional rules set the deadline as the later of 29 July 2026 and 14 days after enrolling. A firm that enrolled on 29 July 2026 therefore had until 12 August 2026. Businesses already enrolled before 31 March 2026 had until 30 May 2026.
First independent evaluation
Your policies must set how often the program is independently evaluated, and at least once every three years. For a newly regulated business the first evaluation is due by a date set by the last two digits of its AUSTRAC account number:
- 30 June 2029 if both digits are odd.
- 31 December 2029 if the second-last digit is odd and the last is even.
- 30 June 2030 if both digits are even.
- 31 December 2030 if the second-last digit is even and the last is odd.
What to do
- Find your AUSTRAC account number on your enrolment.
- Write the resulting evaluation deadline into your program's review schedule.
- Consider an earlier evaluation: AUSTRAC notes that skilled evaluators will be easier to find before the deadlines cluster.
Questions people ask
- Do the transitional rules delay customer due diligence or reporting for Tranche 2 firms?
- No. Those obligations applied from 1 July 2026. The transitional relief for Tranche 2 firms concerns the officer notification and the first independent evaluation; other items in the rules concern existing entities and virtual asset services.
Sources
Official AUSTRAC guidance this page was checked against. The date is when we captured the page; AUSTRAC may have updated it since.
- AML/CTF transitional rules 2026 · AUSTRAC, captured 12 Sept 2026
- AML/CTF compliance officer · AUSTRAC, captured 17 May 2026
- Step 5: Conduct an independent evaluation · AUSTRAC, captured 12 Apr 2026