AUSTRAC Transaction Reporting Changes from 1 July 2026: New TTR and SMR Forms Explained

On 1 July 2026, AUSTRAC — the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, Australia's anti-money-laundering regulator — switches on two changes at once: new threshold transaction report (TTR) and suspicious matter report (SMR) forms in AUSTRAC Online, and the start of AML/CTF obligations for the thousands of newly regulated "tranche 2" businesses. If your business touches Australian customers or payments, this is the date your reporting pipeline has to be ready for.

Key takeaways

• AUSTRAC releases new TTR and SMR forms on 1 July 2026, designed to improve the quality of the data it collects and streamline reporting in AUSTRAC Online.
• Newly regulated (tranche 2) businesses — the professions brought into scope by Australia's AML/CTF reforms — have their obligations, including reporting, commence on 1 July 2026 and use the new forms from day one.
• AUSTRAC has urged new entities to enrol before the 29 July 2026 deadline; enrolling early unlocks preview access to the new forms plus training and quick reference guides.
• Businesses already enrolled with AUSTRAC on 30 March 2026 get transitional arrangements: they can move to the new forms any time between 1 July 2026 and 30 March 2029.
• AUSTRAC received more than 2 million TTRs and over 450,000 SMRs last year, and expects volumes to rise as newly regulated businesses come online.
• There are no changes to cross-border movement or international funds transfer instruction (IFTI) reporting at this stage.
• Reports are only as good as the monitoring behind them. A rules-based transaction monitoring system that flags threshold breaches and suspicious patterns in real time — and keeps a case file for every alert — is what turns these obligations from a manual burden into an API call.

What changes on 1 July 2026

Reporting to AUSTRAC is a core obligation for businesses regulated under Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws. Two report types are getting new forms:

• Threshold transaction reports (TTRs) — filed when a business provides a designated service involving a transfer of physical currency (or e-currency) of AUD 10,000 or more.
• Suspicious matter reports (SMRs) — filed when a business forms a suspicion on reasonable grounds that a customer or transaction is linked to crime, money laundering, or terrorism financing.

The new forms change what information AUSTRAC collects and how reporting works in AUSTRAC Online — including the individual reporting method, the dashboard, and receipts. AUSTRAC's stated goal is better data quality, so it and law-enforcement partners can detect and respond to financial crime faster.

Who is affected, and when

Newly regulated businesses (tranche 2). Australia's AML/CTF reforms expand regulation to new industries — including real estate professionals, lawyers, accountants, and other professional service providers. Their obligations commence on 1 July 2026, and that includes reporting. There is no old form to fall back on: tranche 2 entities use the new TTR and SMR forms from day one. AUSTRAC has released preview versions of the forms plus training, unlocked by enrolment — and enrolment itself has a 29 July 2026 deadline.

Existing reporting entities. If your business was already enrolled with AUSTRAC on 30 March 2026, you have a transition window: you can keep filing on your current setup and switch to the new forms any time between 1 July 2026 and 30 March 2029. Three years sounds generous, but if your reports are generated by internal systems, the systems work — new fields, new validation, new submission flow — is the long pole. Compliance teams that treat this as a 2029 problem usually discover in 2028 that it was an engineering project all along.

What is not changing: cross-border movement reports and international funds transfer instruction (IFTI) reporting stay as they are, at this stage.

The real work is upstream of the form

A TTR or SMR is the last step of a pipeline. Before anyone fills in a form, something has to notice that a transaction crossed a threshold, that a pattern looks like structuring, or that a customer's behaviour stopped making sense. That is transaction monitoring, and it is exactly the part that new tranche 2 entities have never had to run before — and that many existing entities still run on spreadsheets and overnight batch jobs.

Didit's Transaction Monitoring gives you that pipeline as an API, at $0.02 per transaction, with public pricing and no minimums:

• Real-time rule engine — every transaction is evaluated as it happens and returns one of four statuses: APPROVED, IN_REVIEW, DECLINED, or AWAITING_USER.
• 11 seeded rule bundles — including Finance, AML/CTF, Anomaly detection, FATF-aligned rules, Fraud, Device intelligence, Crypto monitoring and screening, Responsible gaming, E-commerce, and Custom — so threshold and structuring logic (the patterns behind TTRs and many SMRs) works out of the box.
• Velocity aggregations — count, sum, and distinct windows that catch a customer splitting AUD 10,000 into eleven AUD 950 deposits.
• Built-in case management and SAR workflow — every alert opens a case with the full evidence trail, so when your compliance officer files an SMR in AUSTRAC Online, the who/what/when/why is already assembled.
• Fiat and crypto — one engine for both, with wallet screening available in the same platform.

Technical details

Submitting a transaction for monitoring is one call:

curl -X POST https://verification.didit.me/v3/transactions/ \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "transaction_id": "au-payout-0001",
    "transaction_category": "finance",
    "transaction_details": {
      "direction": "outbound",
      "amount": "9500.00",
      "currency": "AUD"
    },
    "subject": { "entity_type": "person", "vendor_data": "user-42", "full_name": "Jane Doe" },
    "counterparty": { "entity_type": "company", "full_name": "Acme Supplier" }
  }'

The response includes the transaction status (APPROVED if no rules fired; IN_REVIEW or DECLINED if they did) and a risk score reflecting each fired rule's contribution. Webhooks (transaction.created, transaction.status.updated) push status changes into your own systems, so a flagged transaction can open a review before funds move. Price: $0.02 per transaction, billed only on what you send.

For screening the people behind the transactions, AML Screening checks customers against 1,300+ sanctions, PEP, and watchlists at $0.20 per check, with ongoing monitoring at $0.07 per user per year — the "customer due diligence" half of the same AML/CTF program that TTRs and SMRs report on.

Use cases

• Fintechs and payment platforms serving Australia — evaluate every payout and deposit in real time; alerts arrive with the case file your compliance team needs for an SMR.
• Crypto exchanges and VASPs — the same rule engine covers crypto transactions and wallet risk, with FATF-aligned bundles.
• Newly regulated tranche 2 firms — professional service businesses that have never run AML tooling can start with seeded rule bundles instead of building a monitoring program from scratch.
• Lenders and marketplaces — structuring, velocity, and anomaly rules catch the patterns that turn into reportable suspicious matters.

How to integrate with Didit

1. Create a free account at business.didit.me — no credit card, 500 free KYC verifications every month.
2. Enable Transaction Monitoring in your workflow, pick from the 11 seeded rule bundles, and tune thresholds to your risk appetite (an AUD 10,000 threshold rule takes one edit).
3. Send transactions to POST /v3/transactions/ and subscribe to the webhooks.
4. Work alerts in the built-in case manager; export the evidence trail when you file TTRs or SMRs in AUSTRAC Online.

The Transaction Monitoring docs walk through the full integration in under an hour.

Frequently asked questions

Do the new AUSTRAC forms change who has to report?

The forms themselves don't change who reports — the AML/CTF reforms do. From 1 July 2026, tranche 2 businesses are regulated and must report; the new TTR and SMR forms launch the same day, so new entities only ever use the new forms.

We're an existing reporting entity. Do we have to switch on 1 July 2026?

No. If you were enrolled with AUSTRAC on 30 March 2026, you can transition to the new forms any time between 1 July 2026 and 30 March 2029. Preview the new forms in AUSTRAC Online first — the individual reporting method, dashboard, and receipts have changed.

Does this affect IFTI or cross-border movement reporting?

No — AUSTRAC has confirmed there are no changes to cross-border movement or international funds transfer reporting at this stage.

Can Didit file TTRs or SMRs for us?

Didit doesn't file reports on your behalf — filing happens in AUSTRAC Online. What Didit does is everything upstream: real-time monitoring at $0.02 per transaction, threshold and structuring rules, and a case file per alert so the report your compliance officer files is complete and defensible.

Does Didit cover crypto transactions too?

Yes — the same /v3/transactions/ engine monitors fiat and crypto, with dedicated crypto monitoring and screening rule bundles, plus wallet screening in the same platform.

Ready to get started?

• Read the Transaction Monitoring docs — rule bundles, statuses, webhooks, and the full API reference.
• Explore the Transaction Monitoring product page and public pricing — $0.02 per transaction, no minimums.
• Start free — 500 KYC verifications free every month, and turn on transaction monitoring when you're ready.