An SMR — Suspicious Matter Report — is the report a reporting entity lodges with AUSTRAC when it forms a suspicion on reasonable grounds that a customer or transaction relates to money laundering, terrorism financing, tax evasion, proceeds of crime, or other serious offending. Suspicion can be triggered by transaction patterns, customer behaviour, third-party intelligence, or refusal to provide CDD information. SMRs must be lodged within 3 business days (24 hours for terrorism-financing suspicions). Critically, you must not tell the customer that an SMR has been or might be lodged — that's the offence of 'tipping off', a criminal offence under the AML/CTF Act. SMRs are confidential, intelligence-only documents; lodging one is not an accusation and provides civil-liability protection for the reporter.
What SMR means in practice from 1 July 2026
Tranche 2 sectors will need to identify red flags and lodge SMRs as a routine part of practice from 1 July 2026. Most providers ship pre-built SMR drafting workflows for the new sectors; firms relying on email and Word templates are exposed to both missed lodgements and tipping-off risk.
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