Equifax Australia AML/CTF 2026 Summit Gathers Industry to Address Operationalisation of Australia’s Landmark Financial Crime Reforms

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – 24 June 2026  – Equifax Australia recently hosted senior financial services leaders, risk executives, and compliance specialists at the Equifax Australia AML/CTF Summit 2026 to address the critical operational shift facing reporting entities following recent regulatory reforms.

The Summit moved beyond regulatory theory to confront the practical, real-world deployment of data, technology, and customer strategies required to secure Australia's financial ecosystem against serious criminal harm. With key legislative milestones now passed, the summit focused heavily on how major banks, mutuals, fintechs, and corporate entities are navigating the transition to outcome-based, control-centric risk management.

"Boards and executive teams are navigating an incredibly intricate environment where fraud is hiding behind legitimate businesses and where they hold explicit accountability for shifting from a tick the box process to creating a culture of ongoing verification and validation," said Moses Samaha, Executive General Manager at Equifax Australia.

"We are moving into a future where 'good compliance' requires balancing rigorous data security and regulatory tracing obligations against the commercial need for high-speed, high-trust customer experiences. Equifax is committed to providing the rich insights necessary to bridge the gap between regulatory mandates and seamless operational execution."

The summit opened with a keynote address from Brendan Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of AUSTRAC, who detailed the regulatory expectations for the next phase of reforms. Thomas emphasised that no single entity holds the full intelligence required to disrupt modern, cross-border criminal networks. He called for a fundamental shift toward public-private partnerships and real-time data sharing, cautioning that as financial crime becomes increasingly sophisticated, businesses must adopt an outcome-based approach rather than a tick-box compliance mindset.

"Financial crime risks are non-static, fast-moving, and deeply embedded in legitimate activity," said Thomas. "AUSTRAC is looking for organisations to drive a culture of escalation, transparency, and accountability from the top down. Good compliance means supporting your frameworks with strong governance and meaningful customer due diligence", said Brendan Thomas, CEO, AUSTRAC. 

The Summit agenda featured targeted panel discussions tracking the evolution of Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB), and Know Your Employee (KYE) frameworks. Industry leaders from Australia’s major banks and financial institutions, telecommunications sector, and other corporate entities shared cross-sector insights on managing data minimisation paradoxes, tracing multi-layered corporate trust structures, and defending against identity fraud.

Key insights from these discussions included:

• The shifting focus from verifying ‘who you are’ to analysing ‘what you do’, with digital identity and a range of fraud prevention searches including biometrics to solve for identity document compromise.
• The need for the constant evolution of operational processes and technology to keep up with fraudsters, emphasising that monitoring must align with customer behavior rather than just implementation dates.
• Organisations were urged to adopt a holistic, risk-based lens to identify personnel vulnerabilities and protect against ‘the insider threat’, noting that there is no ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to managing internal threats.

Moses Samaha concluded, “The implementation of these new reforms represents the largest shift in Australia’s AML/CTF landscape in decades. This is no longer about just compliance; it is a whole of economy mandate to proactively identify and prevent financial crime. By adopting a continuous, adaptative approach to monitoring, rather than static checkpoints, Australian businesses can better protect their operations. The key is to start today and iterate over time; in this evolving environment, progress is far more critical than perfection.”

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