Precious metals, stones and products designated services

Learn about the new designated services for buying or selling precious metals, stones and products, or a combination of these items, for $10,000 or more in physical currency (cash such as bank notes or coins, whether Australian or foreign currency) or virtual assets.

Designated services

This section refers to the Act section 6(3).

Whether your business has anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) obligations depends on the services you provide, known as designated services.

If your business provides one or more designated services that have a geographical link to Australia, you’ll have AML/CTF obligations.

Businesses that buy or sell precious metals, stones or products provide a designated service when they buy or sell these items (or a combination) in the course of carrying on a business, and the purchase or sale satisfies all of the following:

is valued at $10,000 or greater
involves a single transaction or a series of transactions that appear linked
is made using physical currency, virtual assets or a combination of physical currency and virtual assets at or above the $10,000 value threshold.

If these items are bought or sold using only a debit or credit card or a bank transfer, the business isn’t providing a designated service.

The relevant designated service defined in the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (the Act) is extracted below:

Table 2— Precious metals, stones and products

Item	Provision of a designated service	Customer of the designated service
2	buying or selling one or more of the following items in the course of carrying on a business, where the purchase involves the transfer of physical currency or virtual assets (or a combination of physical currency and virtual assets) with a total value of not less than $10,000, whether the purchase is made in a single transaction or in several transactions that are linked or appear to be linked: (a) precious metal; (b) precious stones; (c) precious products; (d) any combination of any 2 or more of the items referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c)	the buyer or the seller (as the case may be)

The impact of being regulated

If you provide this designated service you must comply with the Act and Rules. This means you’ll need to enrol with us and meet your AML/CTF obligations.

You must also complete the necessary steps to know your customer before you start to provide them with a designated service. Learn more about initial customer due diligence.

We’ve developed this guidance to describe and support you to meet these obligations.

Items that are regulated

This section refers to the Act section 5A and Explanatory Memorandum paragraph 336.

Precious metals, stones and products are:

precious metals: gold, silver, platinum, iridium, osmium, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium or an alloy with at least 2% weight of any of these substances (whether in a manufactured or unmanufactured state)
precious stones: substances of gem quality with market-recognised beauty, rarity and value, including (but not limited to) beryl, corundum, diamond, garnet, jadeite jade, opal, pearl or topaz
precious products are items made of, containing, or having attached to it, any precious metals or stones (or both), that are any of the following: jewellery, watches and other items of personal adornment, along with any article of goldsmith’s or silversmith’s wares.

When deciding if a substance outside the above list is a precious stone, we consider that:

gem quality means that the substance’s colour, cut, clarity or carat can be assessed or graded.
market-recognised beauty, rarity and value require the existence of a market for the substance. Assuming a market is identified, beauty is a quality or characteristic that excites or delights the eye or the aesthetic sense. Rarity is something rare, unusual or uncommon. Value means of material or monetary worth.

It doesn’t matter whether the substance is synthetic, natural or man-made.

Examples of precious products include a:

ring crafted from gold and pearl
stainless-steel watch with diamonds set on the face
headdress made of platinum and garnet
gold or diamond grill (dental jewellery).

Personal adornments are items that can be worn by a person to add beauty or interest to an outfit. Personal adornments will be precious products if they contain, or have attached to them, any precious metals or stones. Examples include:

belts
hair clips.

Goldsmiths or silversmiths’ wares broadly capture products crafted from a precious metal and made or sold by goldsmiths or silversmiths. Examples include tableware, trophies, goblets and ornamental items and other articles of personal, household, office or religious use.

Transactions that are linked or appear to be linked

This section refers to item 2 of table 2 in section 6 and section 142 of the Act. It also refers to the to the Explanatory Memorandum paragraph 340.

You’ll provide a regulated transaction if all the following apply:

a customer makes one or more transactions in cash and/or virtual assets for precious metals, stones, or products (or a combination of these items)
transactions are linked or appear to be linked
the total is $10,000 or more.

If you accept linked payments that total $10,000 or more, you must treat the service as regulated and comply with AML/CTF obligations.

Therefore, even if you only accept physical currency and/or virtual assets for transactions less than $10,000, you must have processes in place to monitor for and identify linked or apparently linked transactions that could reach the $10,000 threshold.

Learn more about what to do if you accept physical currency and/or virtual assets of less than $10,000 per transaction at regulation options for dealers in precious metals, stones and products.

Identifying linked transactions

Linked transactions are payments, sales or purchases that are connected where you sell or purchase precious metals, stones or products (or a combination of these) in the course of carrying on a business.

They might involve the same customer, similar items or happen close together. They can also include legitimate uses or be used to avoid AML/CTF reporting.

To identify if transactions are linked, ask yourself whether the transactions:

relate to the same items or the same underlying sale or purchase
form part of a single service or arrangement (for example, a single purchase or payment instalment arrangement such as lay-by)
share a common purpose (for example, payments made towards an outstanding balance)
are made by the same customer in a short period for the same or similar products
are connected through an invoice or payment (such as multiple payments for one invoice, or one payment covering several invoices)
appear to be intentionally split into smaller amounts (structuring) to stay below $10,000 to avoid being reported to us.

When identifying linked transactions, we expect you to consider both:

what you know about the customer
any patterns in their transaction history.

See more examples of transactions that are linked or appear to be linked in practice.

Linked transactions include structuring

Structuring is a type of linked transaction and is a common money laundering technique. It happens when someone divides large physical currency transactions into smaller ones to avoid threshold transaction reporting obligations, which activate when you accept a physical currency transaction valued at $10,000 or more.

Structuring to avoid reporting is a criminal offence. Signs of structuring might include:

a customer asking to split payments into amounts under $10,000
changes in how payments are made, for example, using different methods
involving different staff members to process payments.

If you accept linked transactions reaching the $10,000 threshold or more, you must monitor for unusual transactions and behaviours. This includes monitoring for structuring.

You must submit a suspicious matter report (SMR) if both:

you accept a regulated physical currency or virtual asset transaction
you have reasonable grounds to suspect that a customer is structuring to avoid threshold transaction reporting

You must also submit an SMR if all of the following are satisfied:

you have reasonable grounds to suspect that a customer is structuring to avoid threshold transaction reporting
you ordinarily accept regulated physical currency or virtual asset transactions from customers
a customer requests that you engage in a regulated physical currency or virtual asset transaction or inquires whether you would be willing or prepared to do so.

This applies even if you don’t accept the cash or virtual asset transaction giving rise to the suspicious matter.

Example: Structured payments (SMR required)

Your customer wants to buy $30,000 worth of uncut diamonds in cash. Your business normally accepts transactions over $10,000 in cash.

When discussing payment, they suggest paying $9,000 now and return over several days to make further cash payments under $10,000. They ask if you can treat each payment as a separate transaction.

When you ask why, they avoid the question and repeat that they prefer to pay this way.

This gives you reasonable grounds to suspect the customer is structuring to avoid threshold transaction reporting.

You must submit a suspicious matter report. This applies even if you do not accept the cash transaction giving rise to the suspicious matter.

Learn more about:

When the designated service starts

You start providing a designated service from the time that all of the following are satisfied:

the sale or purchase is completed
where there’s either one transaction, or more than one transaction that’s linked or appears to be linked, from the point where the value of transactions in physical currency and/or virtual assets exceed $10,000.

Transactions involving regulated items

If your customers can make purchases from you, or sales to you, using physical currency or virtual assets, you may inadvertently provide a designated service.

For example, your customer may purchase a single item worth $15,000 and pay for it over multiple instalments:

instalment 1: physical currency transaction completed on day 1 with a value of $5,000
instalment 2: physical currency transaction completed on day 2 with a value of $5,000
instalment 3: virtual asset transaction completed on day 3 with a value of $5,000.

While each individual transaction is below the $10,000 threshold of the designated service, they’re transactions that are linked or appear to be linked, so are combined. This means the business begins providing a designated service on day 2.

Transactions involving a mix of unregulated and regulated items

If only part of the sale involves regulated items, the value of those items must be $10,000 or more for there to be a designated service.

Where a transaction, or multiple transactions that are linked or appear to be linked, involve a mix of regulated and unregulated items, only regulated items will be counted towards the $10,000 threshold.

For example, a shop sells a customer $11,500 of items in a single transaction, which includes:

a belt buckle with gold and ruby elements – $8,500
leather shoes with no precious metals or stones – $3,000.

This purchase isn’t a designated service, because the value of the regulated item (belt buckle) alone is valued under $10,000.

Our expectations

If your business provides this designated service, we expect you to do all of the following:

identify the items you sell or buy that qualify as precious metals, precious stones and precious products
establish systems to detect any transactions that are linked or appear to be linked to the sale or purchase of these items using physical currency, virtual assets or a combination of both, valued at $10,000 or more
establish an AML/CTF program to make sure you meet your AML/CTF obligations when these transactions arise.

You must discharge a range of AML/CTF obligations before you start to sell or buy an item or items regulated under this designated service. This includes identifying your customer and developing and implementing an AML/CTF program.

If your business doesn’t adopt the transaction detection systems mentioned, there’s a significant chance that your business won’t identify these transactions and discharge your AML/CTF obligations in relation to them within the required timeframes. Non-compliance with these obligations carries significant penalties.

This risk is magnified when dealing with transactions that are linked or appear to be linked. Many of these transactions, particularly transactions deliberately structured under the $10,000 threshold, will be difficult to detect without establishing dedicated processes.

This guidance sets out how we interpret certain Australian legislation, along with associated Rules and regulations. Australian courts are ultimately responsible for interpreting these laws and determining if any provisions of these laws are contravened.

The examples and scenarios in this guidance are meant to help explain our interpretation of these laws. They’re not exhaustive or meant to cover every possible scenario.

This guidance provides general information and isn't a substitute for legal advice. This guidance avoids legal language wherever possible and it might include generalisations about the application of the law. Some provisions of the law referred to have exceptions or important qualifications. In most cases your particular circumstances must be taken into account when determining how the law applies to you.

Last updated:
10 Jul 2026

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