Co‐designing compliance to the Anti‐Money Laundering Act within the small and medium enterprise sector

Purpose - Money laundering is a financial crime that does not directly affect a business but poses a serious threat to a nation's stability and security. The Australian Anti‐money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act (AML/CTF Act – the Act) passed into law in 2006, but achieving compliance is proving a daunting task, especially within the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. This paper aims to propose a co‐designed communication strategy, which if adopted by the Australian regulator, AUSTRAC, could improve communication and education about the Act within this sector. Design/methodology/approach - A literature review is done to understand the complexities of the Act and its compliance regime, especially with regards to SME. By establishing the importance of SME to a country's economy, as well as the need for AUSTRAC to understand their limitations, this paper uses the concepts of design in communication, and the importance of involving stakeholders in designing solutions, to develop a communication strategy. Findings - It is clear that the current compliance regime is not very successful, and a better communication strategy would achieve better education among the SME sector and could result in better compliance indices. Research limitations/implications - This paper is based on the available literature including journals, white papers and the AUSTRAC website and did not involve in‐person communication or contact with either the stakeholders or AUSTRAC. Originality/value - This paper is first of its kind to propose the use of “design” in order to improve the AML/CTF compliance indices.