AUSTRAC has developed a new risk assessment approach, the Compliance Risk Exposure Scoring Tool (CREST), to assist the agency in its risk-based supervision of regulated entities. CREST allows AUSTRAC to concentrate its supervisory resources on entities at most risk of money laundering or terrorism financing (ML/TF).

The ratings are grouped into four risk priorities: high, medium, low and minimum.

CREST risk ratings are internal to AUSTRAC. In certain cases involving on-site visits to entities, AUSTRAC may choose to disclose the entity’s CREST ratings on a confidential basis and on strict condition that the entity does not further disclose the rating.