Understand the current transition
An international funds transfer instruction concerns money or property made available across the Australian border under the relevant instruction arrangements. AUSTRAC says the transitional rules preserve IFTI reporting until the entity’s IVTS reporting transition date, which is on or after 31 March 2029. Its guidance distinguishes IFTI-E and IFTI-DRA reports and specifies a ten-business-day reporting period for covered instructions. Do not assume the new IVTS provisions replace the current process immediately. Check the entity’s role, instruction type and transitional position.
- International funds transfer reports: IFTI definition; transition; report types
- AML/CTF transitional rules 2026: IVTS reporting and staged obligations
- Customer
Gives the instruction.
- Accepting provider
Identifies its role and information.
- Other participants
Record relevant intermediaries.
- Receiving arrangement
Identify how value is made available.
Understand the instruction chain
Illustrative workflow. Read the page and current primary guidance for conditions and exceptions.
Connected concepts. Lines do not show ownership or a reporting hierarchy.
IFTI-E and IFTI-DRA are different
An IFTI-E concerns an electronic international transfer within or between financial institutions. An IFTI-DRA concerns a designated remittance arrangement where at least one relevant accepting or disbursing entity is not a financial institution. The distinction affects the form and information required. It follows the arrangement, not simply whether the customer used a website or a branch. The transfer chain can include an ordering or accepting party, intermediaries and the receiving party. Identify the business role before choosing the reporting route.
Worked example: an overseas family transfer
Imagine a remittance provider accepts an instruction in Australia to make money available to a relative overseas. The example operations team records the sender, recipient, amount and receiving arrangement. It then uses the reporting instructions appropriate to its role and system. If a third party supplies incomplete recipient details, that becomes an information issue to resolve through the process. The example does not suggest that a family purpose removes reporting obligations, or that every participant in the chain submits the same report.
Prepare a controlled change
For an illustrative transition project, keep a register of the current report type, data fields, submission method and responsible team. Record the source supporting the current arrangement. Treat a future reporting change as a change project with an effective date, training and reconciliation checks. Do not switch a production report solely because a new label appears in legislation. This approach makes assumptions visible and reduces the chance that an old report stops before the replacement is required and ready for the relevant entity.
Check completeness and follow-up
An example review compares reportable instruction records with submitted reports and investigates missing or duplicate references. It should distinguish a technical submission failure from a conclusion that no report was required. Keep an owner for any request for more information. When a transition announcement changes, revisit the source and update the documented decision. The exact legal duties remain those in the applicable law and preserved rules. This page explains the reporting boundary; it does not provide a complete transfer-message specification or a migration date for an individual business.