Checking a remittance provider

What counts as a remittance provider

AUSTRAC defines a remittance service provider as an individual, business or organisation that accepts instructions from customers to transfer money or property to a recipient. They are also known as money transfer businesses. AUSTRAC says that anyone who provides a service that helps customers send money to someone in another location is probably providing a remittance service, even if only occasionally, and that this includes offering hawala.

AUSTRAC registers providers in three categories.

Networks and independent dealers must renew their registration every three years, and networks must also renew their affiliates’ registration.

Checking the register, step by step

1. Open the register

   The Remittance Sector Register is AUSTRAC’s published list of registered providers.

2. Search by name or number

   Enter at least three characters of the legal name or trading name; the more you enter, the more accurate the search is likely to be. Results are limited to 200 records. To search by ACN, ABN or ARBN, enter the full number without spaces.

3. Read the record

   You will see the legal name, any trading names, the ACN, ABN and ARBN where relevant, and the registered address. Check that these match the business you are actually dealing with.

4. Look for the yellow mark

   An exclamation mark in a yellow circle means AUSTRAC has imposed conditions on the provider. The conditions are in a PDF file, although AUSTRAC says not all conditions are always published.

5. Allow for delay

   AUSTRAC says there may be a delay between it receiving new or changed details and publishing them.

What registration does, and what it does not tell you

For cost and speed, Moneysmart’s list of things to compare is the place to start, and the ACCC adds a useful reminder: do not assume a bank is a more secure option than a non-bank supplier, and ask any supplier about its security measures, any guarantees, and its delivery times. Because Moneysmart says you can complain to AFCA about a provider that is a member, it is worth asking whether it is one.

Signs a provider is not registered

AUSTRAC says a registered remittance service provider will ask you to show identification documents when you transfer money, and if you are not asked for identification, the business probably is not registered.

AUSTRAC describes unregistered providers as committing a serious offence and as being at high risk of being used to launder the proceeds of crimes including scams, drug trafficking, tax evasion and human trafficking. If you use one, it warns, your money could be mixed up in activities that harm the community. For the provider, the penalty for operating unregistered, as at October 2026, can be a fine of up to $420,000, up to seven years in prison, or both.

Reporting a provider you think is unregistered

AUSTRAC asks people to tell it about any remittance dealer they think might be unregistered, and you can report anonymously through its online enquiry form. AUSTRAC’s general enquiries line is 1300 021 037.

A note on calls claiming to be AUSTRAC

Scammers impersonate AUSTRAC. AUSTRAC says it will never demand payment or your personal details by email or over the phone, and that a message asking you to pay penalty fees by money transfer, or telling you it is freezing your accounts, has not come from it. Money transfer scams covers the wider patterns.