New financial crime guide now available

20 April 2023

We have developed a new financial crime guide, in partnership with the Australian Federal Police and Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, to help businesses identify and stop the purchase of child sexual exploitation material and report suspicious activity. Child sexual exploitation is a heinous crime where offenders and facilitators use their power, either physical, financial or emotional, over a child or young person to sexually or emotionally abuse them.

Child sexual exploitation reaches beyond borders and can have lasting negative impacts on victims and communities. Your business plays a crucial role in identifying and stopping financial transactions associated with the purchase of child sexual exploitation material and reporting suspicious activity to AUSTRAC.

Download the financial crime guide – Combating the sexual exploitation of children for financial gain (PDF, 3.47MB)

What you need to do

Payments for child sexual exploitation can be difficult to detect because offenders take considered steps to hide their crimes. No single financial indicator will reveal if an account is being used for child sexual exploitation purposes. Instead, financial service providers should use a combination of indicators highlighted in this guide and knowledge of their business to conduct further monitoring and consider submitting a suspicious matter report (SMR) to AUSTRAC.

Further information

For more information on SMRs and your reporting obligations, please see the suspicious matter reports page. For more information about child sexual exploitation, visit the Australian Federal Police website and the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation website.

AUSTRAC Notice