AUSTRAC has cancelled, suspended or refused to renew 45 remittance and virtual asset service provider (VASP) registrations over the past year, citing risks such as insolvency, dormancy and money laundering exposure.

The businesses removed from AUSTRAC’s registers lacked the operational capacity to trade, had gone dormant, or had not provided designated services for extended periods.

Others were insolvent, failed to hold the appropriate registration, did not notify AUSTRAC of material changes, or otherwise posed money laundering or terrorism financing risks.

One of the cancellations involved BA Digital Ventures Pty Ltd, trading as GetCoins.

AUSTRAC and the National Anti-Scam Centre reviewed the virtual asset service provider after receiving customer complaints, requesting information on its operations to assess how it managed money laundering risks before cancelling its registration.

“This VASP was allegedly exploited by organised cryptocurrency investment scams. By working with the National Anti-Scam Centre and cancelling GetCoins’ registration, AUSTRAC helped to disrupt organised investment scam activity,”

said Brendan Thomas, Chief Executive of AUSTRAC.

 “We are proactively identifying and removing businesses that do not meet the expectations set by the registration regime, and we will continue to remove businesses that pose a significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk. Our message to industry is clear: understand and manage your risks and meet your reporting obligations, or you may not be able to continue operating.”

The removals follow a range of recent regulatory actions in the payments, remittance and virtual asset sectors, including the commencement of an investigation into Western Union and action to suspend Cryptolink’s crypto ATM network.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Australia, based on image by shamaoonstudio via Magnific