Common Abbreviations or Phrases in AML/CTF and FinCrime Compliance

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There are many abbreviations and phrases used in the area of AML/CTF and FinCrime Compliance. Some of the common or popular ones are listed below.

ABBREVIATION	MEANING
ABC or AB&C	Anti bribery & Corruption
AFC	Anti-Financial Crime (depending on the context, it could refer to same as Anti-money laundering, or include reference to other financial crimes)
AML	Anti-Money Laundering
AML/CTF Act	​The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, a Commonwealth legislation
AML/CTF Policies	Under the new AML/CTF regime, AML/CTF policies refer to full bouquet of AML/CTF compliance related policies, framework, procedures etc for identifying, assessing and mitigating ML/TF risk
(new) AML/CTF regime	The new AML/CTF regime updated AML/CTF Act (approved in December 2024), aimed at simplifying and reforming the AML/CTF regime (resulting in several changes to the legislation); and bringing new Tranche 2 businesses (DNFBPs) within the purview of the AML/CTF regime. The new regime comes into effect from multiple dates, with 31 March 2026 (for Tranche 1 entities) and 1 July 2026 (for Tranche 2 entities) as key dates respectively Read about the new AML/CTF regime here
AMLCO or AMLRO	AML Compliance Officer or AML Reporting Officer. Also refer to MLRO. Under the new AML/CTF regime, the AMLCO must be 'fit & proper' as per the prescribed guidelines
ASO	​Australian Sanctions Office, the Australian Sanctions regulator, part of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
AUSTRAC	​Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (https://www.austrac.gov.au/), Australia's FIU promoting, supervising and enforcing the risk management and reporting obligations under the AML/CTF Act and Rules
CDD	Customer Due Diligence (being replaced by Initial CDD from 31 March 2026)
CRS	Common Reporting Standards (a framework for financial institutions to report account details to tax authorities of participating countries other than US)
CTF or CFT	​Countering Terrorism Financing or Combating the Financing of Terrorism
CTR	​Currency Transaction Report or Cash Transaction Report - also refer to TTR. It is a report informing to the regulator in-scope cash transactions
DBG	Designated Business Group (DBG) - Under the new AML/CTF regime, from 31 March 2026, the concept of DBG is being replaced with the Reporting Group concept under the new AML/CTF regime
DNFBP	​Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions (DNFBP) - a cohort of businesses and professions that are not financial services businesses, but are businesses or professions that can be high risk from a ML/TF perspective. Thus, real estate business and business of precious metals and stones; and professional services provided by lawyers, accountants, trust and company service providers, and conveyancers - each of them being a DNFBP - are now regulated under the new AML/CTF regime from 1 July 2026
DS	​Designated Services. If you provide Designated Service in relation to businesses in scope of the AML / CTF legislation, you must have an AML/CTF compliance program Several new DSs (covering DNFPB and VASPs) have been included in the scope of the AML/CTF legislation, brought in by the new AML/CTF regime
ECDD	Enhanced Customer Due Diligence ECDD is Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (ECDD) is an intensified Know Your Customer (KYC) process used by financial institutions and businesses in certain customer profile scenarios (generally high-risk) to identify and mitigate higher risks of money laundering, terrorist financing, or regulatory non-compliance
ETS	​Economic and Trade Sanctions. Sanctions, to put simply, are measures by countries / international bodies against a specific country, group, or individual to persuade them to change a particular policy or conduct. These measures can include trade barriers, tariffs, restrictions on financial transactions, asset freezes, travel bans, and other economic and political measures
FATCA	Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (a US legislation) (Click here)
FATF	Financial Action Task Force (fatf-gafi.org). It is a global inter-governmental organization that sets international standards and promotes measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and related threats to the integrity of the international financial system
FC	Financial Crime
FCPA	Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (a US legislation)
FCRA	Financial Crime Risk Assessment or Enterprise risk assessment A risk assessment methodology used by a Reporting Entity to identify, assess, and mitigate financial crime risks that it can face arising from its products and services, and considering its distribution channels, geography and customer risk
FIU	Financial Intelligence Unit. FIUs are apex national agency in FATF member countries that lead AML regulation. In Australia, AUSTRAC is the national FIU
ICAC	​Independent Commission against Corruption - also refer to NACC a New South Wales, Australia corruption investigation body - https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/
ID	Identification
IFTI	International Funds Transfer Instruction, usually a cross border movement of funds. Reporting Entities have an obligation to monitor and report IFTIs to AUSTRAC (there could be similar reporting provision in other countries to report to their FIUs) Under the new AML/CTF regime, IFTIs are proposed to be replaced with a new reporting International Value Transfer Service (IVTS). Exact date is yet to be determined.
Intial CDD	Initial Customer Due Diligence (effective from 31 March 2026) - the revised customer due diligence rules under the new AML/CTF regime, to be undertaken for onboarding a customer
KYC	Know Your Customer
ML	​Money Laundering
MLRO	Money Laundering Reporting Officer, a designated officer in the company in charge of the AML compliance framework and accountable for AML compliance. Also referred to as AML Compliance Officer (AMLCO) or AML Reporting Officer (AMLRO) (not to be confused with the role / title of an AML officer, which can be a junior AML department position)
NACC	National Anti-corruption Commission - also refer to ICAI NACC is the Australian anti-corruption body. It enhances integrity in the Commonwealth public sector by deterring, detecting and preventing corrupt conduct involving Commonwealth public officials. It does this through education, monitoring, investigation, reporting and referral.
NPO	Non-Profit Organisation, generally charity and social causes entities. They could be a high/ higher ML/TF risk
OCDD	Ongoing Customer Due Diligence A concept used in the context of ongoing due diligence and monitoring of customers availing Designated Services, to prevent or spot ML / TF / PF or other FC
OFAC	Office of Foreign Assets and Control (https://ofac.treasury.gov/). It is an office within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those involved in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to U.S. national security, foreign policy, or economy
PEP	Politically Exposed Person/s. A PEP is an individual who holds a prominent public position or role in a government body or international organisation, either in Australia or overseas. Examples of PEPs include Heads of State or of government, senior politicians, senior government, judicial or military officials, senior executives of state owned corporations, important political party officials. PEPs could be foreign or domestic PEP. PEPs include the immediate family members of such individuals (or even close associates, e.g. a business partner)
PF	Proliferation Financing. It refers to the act of providing funds, financial services, or economic resources that has been or can be used to develop, manufacture, acquire, or transport weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical, or biological) and their delivery systems. The new AML/CTF regime has brought the risks of PF to be considered in setting up the AML/CTF compliance framework
POC	Proceeds of Crime, a concept that refers to illicit money generated through money laundering or financial crimes
POCA	Proceeds of Crime Act, providing framework for investigating, seizing etc the POC
RBA	Risk based approach. FATF / AML/CTF legislation prescribes that the AML/CTF frameworks should identify and address ML, TF, PF risks on a RBA, which means that risks with highest potential impact should be addressed first, and then make your way down
RE	Reporting Entity, an entity that provides Designated Services under the AML/CTF legislation and must have an AML/CTF compliance program A Reporting Entity must be enrolled with AUSTRAC, except Remitters and Virtual Asset Service Providers which must be both registered and enrolled
Reporting Group	A new concept proposed under the new AML/CTF regime (and will replace the DBG concept). It is a flexible structure that allows related or commonly controlled reporting entities to share compliance information, streamline risk management, and adopt a unified AML/CTF program. Unlike in the DBG, the Reporting Group can also comprise non-reporting entities. A Reporting Group must have a Lead Entity, which must be a reporting entity
SMR	Suspicious Matter Report It is filed with AUSTRAC (within 1 or 3 business days, depending on the type of suspicious matter) when a suspicion is formed in respect of a customer or account. T In other countries, this report may be known as STR (Suspicious Transaction Reporting) or SAR (Suspicious Account Reporting)
SOF or SOW	Source of Funds, or Source of Wealth. ECDD / CDD measures may require inquiring on or verifying SOF and / or SOW of a customer and relate to their customer profile, risk and transactions
SWIFT	Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication
TF	Terrorist Financing
Tranche 1 / Tranche 2 businesses or reporting entities	Tranche 1 refers to reporting entities that already provide designated services under the existing AML/CTF legislation (for example, banks, insurance companies, bullion dealers, and pubs and clubs). The key changes introduced under the new AML/CTF regime for Tranche 1 businesses will largely come into effect from 31 March 2026. Tranche 2 refers to reporting entities that will provide newly added designated services brought within the scope of the new AML/CTF regime through the reforms. Broadly, this includes DNFPB businesses (Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions) and VASP businesses (Virtual Asset Service Providers). The key changes for Tranche 2 businesses will largely become effective from 1 July 2026
TTR	Threshold Transaction Reporting, to be filed with AUSTRAC when $10,000 or more (or equivalent in foreign currency) is accepted from a customer in cash (this report can also be referred to as CTR in some countries)
UBO	Ultimate Beneficial Owner, being an individual/s (one or more) who or which ultimately own or control, directly or indirectly, a company or entity, by owning threshold percentage of equity shares (ie 25%), or through exercising control
UNSC	The United Nations Security Council (https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/). UNSC issues UN Sanctions, to be implemented by UN member countries
VASP	Virtual Asset Service Provider Under the new AML/CTF regime, virtual asset services provided in the course of following businesses are registrable: exchanging virtual asset for money; money for virtual asset; and virtual asset for another virtual asset providing another designated service in connection with the offer or sale of a virtual asset providing a virutal asset safekeeping service Remitting or receiving remittance of funds, where this involves virtual asset. Note that the present Digital Currency Exchange (DCE) business / activity has been subsumed in the above VASP services

Note: The legislations or bodies referred above are the Australian legislations or bodies, unless otherwise mentioned or inferred.

Last updated: 13 March 2026

Note: This Referencer may be updated from time to time, and its contents may undergo change.

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Compliense Advisors is an AML/CTF and FinCrime compliance and risk management advisory firm.

Our experience includes implementing legislative changes; undertaking ML/TF risk assessment; setting up, implementing, uplifting AML/CTF program; and advising on AML/CTF and FinCrime compliance and risk matters.

The article above is for general awareness and informational purposes only. Please carefully evaluate your circumstances, and seek professional advice for your specific needs. You are responsible for your compliance obligations, and for any action taken or omitted. We are not a law firm, and do not provide legal advice.

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