{"id":777037055,"date":"2026-01-22T08:40:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777037055"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:07:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:07:27","slug":"austrac-orders-external-audit-of-airwallex-over-suspected-aml-ctf-compliance-failures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/austrac-orders-external-audit-of-airwallex-over-suspected-aml-ctf-compliance-failures","title":{"rendered":"AUSTRAC orders external audit of payment provider Airwallex over suspected compliance failures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Airwallex provides payment and financial infrastructure services to a range of sectors, including gaming-related businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC)<\/strong> has ordered an external audit of global payments company Airwallex<\/strong> amid concerns over potential breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML\/CTF) laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTRAC confirmed it has directed Airwallex\u2019s Designated Business Group to appoint an independent auditor to assess whether the company is meeting its obligations under the AML\/CTF Act 2006. The audit will focus on the effectiveness of Airwallex\u2019s AML\/CTF programme, customer due diligence processes, ongoing monitoring and suspicious matter reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas<\/strong> said: \u201cWe take this action where we suspect serious non-compliance, because we expect businesses to be actively managing their AML\/CTF obligations. Strong compliance systems and timely reporting of suspicious activity are essential to disrupting criminal activities and illicit proceeds of crime generated from fraud, scams, illicit tobacco, drug trafficking and payments relating to crimes such as child sexual exploitation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas stressed: \u201cAs a global payment platform that facilitates the transfer of funds to multiple jurisdictions, AUSTRAC is concerned with Airwallex\u2019s transaction monitoring program has not been attuned to the full range of risks it faces and that the company hasn\u2019t demonstrated an acceptable understanding of who its customers are and what reporting may be required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Airwallex provides payment and financial infrastructure services to a range of sectors, including digital commerce and gaming-related businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November,\u00a0AUSTRAC urged all reporting entities, including gaming operators, to reassess their\u00a0anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML\/CTF)\u00a0controls following the\u00a0Financial Action Task Force\u2019s (FATF) October 2025\u00a0update<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> AUSTRAC urges gaming operators to update AML\/CTF risk settings following FATF report<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airwallex provides payment and financial infrastructure services to a range of sectors, including gaming-related businesses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":777037059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"AUSTRAC has ordered an external audit of global payments provider Airwallex due to suspected serious non-compliance with AML\/CTF obligations, specifically citing concerns regarding its transaction monitoring program and customer due diligence processes. This regulatory action underscores heightened scrutiny on financial infrastructure providers, including those serving the iGaming sector, to ensure robust anti-financial crime frameworks. The audit will assess the effectiveness of Airwallex's AML\/CTF program and reporting mechanisms.","focusai_entities":"Airwallex, AUSTRAC, Brendan Thomas, FATF","focusai_location":"Australia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.8), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Airwallex Audit Impact","query":"What specific remediation actions will Airwallex be required to implement following the AUSTRAC audit, and what is the projected timeline for achieving full compliance?"},{"label":"Operator Due Diligence","query":"How should iGaming operators reassess their due diligence processes for third-party payment providers in light of AUSTRAC's heightened scrutiny on AML\/CTF compliance?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156],"tags":[23793,289,337],"class_list":["post-777037055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","tag-austrac","tag-australia","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777037055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777037055"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777037055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777037061,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777037055\/revisions\/777037061"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777037059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777037055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777037055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777037055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}