Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre urges financial services providers to strengthen suspicious matter reporting to detect child sexual exploitation for profit

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) issued a National Child Protection Week reminder to financial services providers about their role in identifying and reporting financial activity linked to child sexual exploitation for gain. AUSTRAC highlighted how suspicious matter reports from banks, remitters, digital currency exchanges and payment platforms underpin financial intelligence used to support law enforcement investigations. AUSTRAC said its intelligence draws on suspicious matter reports, international funds transfer instructions and crypto payments and cited an example in which it identified payments consistent with the purchase of child sexual exploitation material while an individual was overseas, leading to Australian Border Force interception and a subsequent conviction. It also flagged ‘sextortion’ as a growing threat affecting under 18s, noting that since June 2022 Operation Huntsman, a joint Australian Centre to Counter Child Sexual Exploitation and AUSTRAC initiative, has resulted in the closure of more than 3,000 Australian bank accounts linked to sextortion payments. AUSTRAC pointed firms to its financial crime guide and gave examples of red flags, including multiple low-value transactions under AUD 500 coded as innocuous items alongside purchases such as spyware apps, virtual private networks, video capture software, or travel tickets to high-risk jurisdictions.