AUSTRAC's typology bulletins are the regulator's way of telling reporting entities what patterns they're seeing. The May 2026 update — the first since Tranche 2 commencement was confirmed — focuses heavily on the new cohort.
The three new typologies
- Real estate purchases via newly incorporated trusts with overseas appointors — added to the high-risk customer typology.
- Layered cash deposits below the A$10,000 threshold across multiple branches in a 30-day window — structuring update.
- Use of legal trust accounts to receive funds from unrelated parties before disbursing to the property settlement — third-party payment escalation.
Translating to monitoring rules
All three are detectable with the baseline monitoring rules in our transaction monitoring guide, with parameter tweaks. The harder part is updating staff training to reference the typologies by name — fee-earners should know what 'an AUSTRAC typology' looks like in their workflow, not just in the abstract.