Controlling hawala in Australia: a study of Australia’s post-9/11 anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing regulatory framework for remittance systems

Abstract

After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (9/11), a group known as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) updated its international Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) guidelines. This placed pressure on countries to update their own AML/CTF regulatory frameworks to ensure compliance with international best practices. Included in the revised, post-9/11 guidelines was the requirement to regulate “hawala”, a little known yet widespread informal money transfer system, which was identified as an AML/CTF risk after 9/11 but not explicitly included in pre-9/11 guidelines. This thesis asks how Australia regulated hawala as part of its post-9/11 AML/CTF regulator..