Who really owns the company? Many newly regulated small businesses aren't checking. Anti-money laundering specialist Kaan Yuksel available for comment
Visibl
Key Facts:- Compliance specialist Kaan Yuksel warns the anti money laundering legislation is complex for small and medium businesses, noting that trust structures can involve eight or nine parties, requiring firms to have an almost corporate-lawyer-level understanding of commercial structures.
- New research from Visibl's Anti Money Laundering Readiness Report 2026 found 75.4% of businesses surveyed believe identity verification checks alone satisfy their legal obligations, yet more than half are missing at least one other required check — meaning 42.6% of all businesses surveyed have compliance gaps.
- A key blind spot is beneficial ownership: 28.3% of businesses relying on identity checks alone are not consistently verifying the beneficial owners of companies and trusts they onboard, which AUSTRAC has flagged as a high money-laundering risk.
Who really owns the company? Many newly regulated small businesses aren't checking. Anti-money laundering specialist Kaan Yuksel available for comment
Anti-money laundering specialist Kaan Yuksel says the law now expects real estate agents, accountants and lawyers to verify all their customers and unpick trust and company structures "like a corporate lawyer". New research suggests many aren't verifying who's behind them and operating on a false sense of compliance.
SYDNEY — Since 1 July, real estate agents, accountants and lawyers have been regulated by AUSTRAC to detect money laundering, a regime banks have long had dedicated teams to run.
"The legislation honestly feels more complex for small and medium businesses than it does for the banks already in Tranche 1 of the regulation," says Kaan Yuksel, founder of AML compliance specialist Visibl.
New research finds 28.3% of businesses relying on ID checks alone aren't consistently verifying the beneficial owners of the companies and trusts they onboard - the exact gap AUSTRAC has flagged as a high money-laundering risk in property and professional services.
"There can be eight or nine parties in a trust, and the law expects real estate agents, accountants and law firms to have almost a corporate lawyer's understanding of commercial structures just to work out who needs to be verified."
The finding sits inside a wider blind spot. In Visibl's Anti Money Laundering Readiness Report 2026, 75.4% of businesses surveyed believe verification of identity (VOI) checks alone satisfy their obligations. More than half of them are missing at least one other required check by law, such as sanctions and screening for politically exposed persons, beneficial ownership verification or full know-your-customer or know-your-business compliance checks. That's 42.6% of all businesses surveyed. AUSTRAC's 2024 risk assessment rated real estate high-risk, with legal and accounting also high-risk.
"Verification of identity is only the first part of initial due diligence, and an even smaller part when it comes to non-individual customers. In a company, trust or partnership onboarding, you also need to verify the entity exists and verify the identities of its beneficial owners, who go through those same steps."
Visibl says beneficial ownership checks should be a built-in step for every non-individual customer, not a judgement call left to individual staff, with ownership mapped, risk-rated and screened against sanctions, PEP and negative media lists automatically.
Kaan Yuksel is available to discuss: why verification of identity isn't enough for companies and trusts · what AUSTRAC expects from small firms · how to spot red flags in ownership structures.
Notes to editors
Methodology: Australia's AML Readiness Report 2026 is based on a survey of 61 accounting, real estate and legal businesses across Australia, fielded 31 July – 10 August 2026, plus in-depth interviews with three industry practitioners.
Interviews with Kaan Yuksel and, by arrangement, the practitioners quoted in this report are available on request.
Please cite as: Australia's AML Readiness Report 2026, commissioned by Visibl. The full report is available at visibl.com.au/Australia-AML-Readiness-Report.
About us:
Visibl is an Australian AML compliance platform helping real estate agencies, law firms, accountants and other regulated businesses prepare for Australia's Tranche 2 Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing reforms. Combining technology with certified AML specialists, Visibl provides compliance programs, customer verification, risk assessment, training and audit-ready reporting designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.
Contact details:
Lucy Allen
0435758509
[email protected]