The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (‘the AML legislation’) is aimed at detecting and addressing the risk of money laundering and the threat to national security caused by the financing of terrorism (terrorist financing).
The AML legislation imposes obligations on a wide range of financial service providers (known as Reporting Entities), including those in the banking, life insurance, managed funds and superannuation sectors. Key requirements include confirming the identity of their customers/investors (know your customer), prior to providing a designated service, undertaking ongoing customer due diligence (OCDD), and reporting any suspicious matters that may arise (SMR).
As a reporting entity and provider of designated services (for example, the issuing of units in managed investment schemes), BlackRock is required to comply with the customer identification and verification requirements imposed by the AML legislation and is therefore required to take all reasonable steps to verify the identity of investors making applications into the various Funds offered by BlackRock prior to providing the designated service (accepting the investment).
For more detailed information on the AML legislation refer to the AUSTRAC website www.austrac.gov.au
Click here for BlackRock’s approach to compliance with the AML legislation