The Australian government’s financial system anti-crimes regulator, AUSTRAC, has called in an external auditor at Airwallex over concerns that the fintech unicorn has failed to properly comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws.
AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas, said the external audits will assess serious compliance concerns by the regulator, which is charged with protecting the financial system from criminal exploitation.
“We take this action where we suspect serious non-compliance, because we expect businesses to be actively managing their AML/CTF obligations,” he said.
“Strong compliance systems and timely reporting of suspicious activity are essential to disrupting criminal activities and illicit proceeds of crime generated from fraud, scams, illicit tobacco, drug trafficking and payments relating to crimes such as child sexual exploitation.”
Thomas said AUSTRAC is concerned with Airwallex’s transaction monitoring program “has not been attuned to the full range of risks it faces and that the company hasn’t demonstrated an acceptable understanding of who its customers are and what reporting may be required”, adding that “our concerns also extend to how well Airwallex identifies and reports on suspicious matters and the effective oversight of these important obligations.”
The auditor, appointed under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006, will examine whether the business is complying with key AML/CTF requirements including, having a AML/CTF program and complying with it; customer due diligence; and meeting suspicious matter reporting obligations.
The auditor must report their findings to AUSTRAC within 180 days of their appointment. The regulator decides the scope of the audit and Airwallex is required to pick up the tab for the examination
The finding will determine whether AUSTRAC takes further regulatory action.
“Effective anti-money laundering controls start at the top. Boards and senior executives must be actively overseeing how money laundering and terrorism financing risks are identified, assessed and managed across their business,” Thomas said.
The intervention by the financial crimes authority comes amid revelations that Airwallex is looking to hire influencers to tout cofounder and CEO Jack Zhang as a thought leader and “an aspirational operator — calm, thoughtful, and decisive — someone worth learning from” on influencer marketplace Partnar.
The Melbourne-founded, Singapore-based fintech, which is domiciled in the Cayman Islands, is now valued at nearly $12 billion after raising $498 million last month also engaged lawyers in an attempt to get the Nine newspapers to delete nine stories published over the last five years, based on internal company documents, which cast Airwallex in a negative light. One, published in 2024, detailed how Zhang asked the company’s general counsel and chief compliance officer in late 2021 if there was a way to get around Hong Kong’s anti-money laundering laws.
“Is there a way we can remove the requirement of collecting all shareholders (over 25%) ID in Hong Kong,” Zhang reportedly asked on Slack, three years after the business relocated its HQ from Melbourne to Hong Kong.
Airwallex said in a statement that will be co-operating fully with AUSTRAC’s requirements and “we welcome this audit as a transparent opportunity to independently validate our AML/CTF program”.
The fintech said that following an AUSTRAC audit of our AML/CTF program in 2024, it was validated by an external and independent auditor in 2025, who said the company “implemented appropriate systems and controls in accordance with its ML/TF risks and nature, size, and complexity for the limited areas reviewed in the scope of this review.”
The statement said Airwallex maintains robust compliance requirements and any customer unable to comply “is promptly terminated” from the platform.
“We are confident that our AML/CTF compliance program is fit for purpose and necessary controls are in place that adequately address all areas of risks facing our business,” the statement said.
“We expect that this upcoming external audit will validate that our framework is robust, comprehensive, and market-leading.”
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