Austrac boss Nicole Rose rebuffs speculation on ASIC role

Austrac boss Nicole Rose has firmly rejected speculation that she is a contender for the chairman’s job at ASIC.

Austrac CEO Nicole Rose. Picture: Gary Ramage

Austrac boss Nicole Rose has rejected speculation that she is a contender for the chairman’s job at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

Current ASIC chairman James Shipton, who was reinstated last month after stepping aside pending completion of an independent inquiry into an expenses row, will remain in the job until a successor is found.

Asked by ASIC’s oversight committee on Friday if Ms Rose was a candidate, Mr Shipton declined to comment.

Ms Rose later issued a statement, saying she was aware of speculation in parliamentary hearings about the future chair of ASIC and whether she was under consideration for the position.

“I can categorically state that I have not expressed any interest, or been approached about the role of chair of ASIC,” she said.

“I remain fully dedicated to my role as Austrac CEO.

“As always, we will continue to work closely with our regulatory and law enforcement partners to combat serious and organised crime to protect the Australian community.”

Earlier, executives from the regulator appeared at a parliamentary hearing.

They confirmed to the hearing that more casinos operators are under early stage investigation in the wake of damning allegations presented about Crown.

Appearing before a parliamentary committee, representatives of the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre - better known as Austrac - were questioned on a range of investigations underway.

They confirmed Austrac was still considering an examination across the casino sector, looking at how gaming operators dealt with high risk customers and junket operators.

Austrac confirmed it was taking one enforcement investigation against Crown Melbourne and considering available data on other gaming operators.

National manager of regulatory operations Nathan Newman said the regulator was looking at “in-depth detail” on how casinos managed VIP customers and junket operators as part of a broader review into the casino sector.

“A number of casinos are reconsidering their current junket operations,” he said.

Dr Newman said the Crown matter was at the heart of current investigations.

“At this point in time, I can’t confirm we are undertaking an enforcement investigation,” he said.

“We are still considering the data we gave available and considering that assessment as part of the compliance matter we are undertaking.”

Crown’s Melbourne operation is the subject of serious money laundering allegations. Picture: David Geraghty

Austrac’s efforts came in for significant scrutiny from members of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services.

Senator Deb O’Neill locked horns with Austrac deputy CEO Peter Soros over the regulator’s failure to detect or take action regarding the use of Australian bank accounts by drug cartels to launder money.

At least 16 domestic and international financial institutions were unwittingly used as conduits for cartels to launder $500m between 2014 and 2017.

The regulator confirmed it had taken no action against Australian banks and had instead used the example as a “case study”.

Mr Soros said the current reporting system had not captured the breaches as “suspicious” nor had banks been aware they had been misused.

“For us to take a bank to court requires us to know a bank had a reasonable suspicion,” he said.

However, committee members noted this case study came to light only after Westpac had been shellacked by Austrac for its failure to report 23m breaches of anti-money laundering laws.

Mr Soros said recent enforcement action against Westpac, CBA and Tabcorp was aimed to “uplift” compliance across the board.

“(The banks) are working incredibly hard,” he said.

Austrac is currently reviewing the operations and compliance of payments provider PayPal, after the regulator ordered the platform to appoint an external auditor in 2019 to examine ongoing concerns of compliance with money laundering laws.

The payments provider was given an extension on March 2 this year to its response.

However, when questioned on how many other businesses Austrac was investigating, Mr Soros declined to answer.

“Sometimes the companies we’re investigating, at different points of time, aren‘t aware we’re investigating them,” he said.