Some newsagents have yet to ensure that their AUSTRAC documentation is up to date and to code. this has resulted in some locations being shut out of Western Union. I engaged the ANF for an update. here it is:
The Australian Government mandated re enrolment process which commenced in February 2012. The ANF WU Team have been working with the newsagency network to undertake this process; we have assisted a number of agents to complete the mandatory AUSTRAC re-enrolment documentation by the 31 October 2012 Government Imposed Deadline.
After only receiving 50% of the re enrolment forms by the original deadline the ANF sought an extension which was granted to all Western Union agents by AUSTRAC to 31 January 2013. We understand leading up to the January 2013 extended deadline that several hundred last minute re-enrolment packs from all Western Union network agents across the country including ANF agents were submitted to Western Union. These are now being processed. This has resulted in some agents being temporarily suspended due to the large volume. The ANF is in contact with western union numerous times daily chasing all relevant paper work to ensure our newsagents are back operating as soon as possible. The ANF is pushing for all newsagents to be fast tracked through this process.
We are re enforcing to Western Union that all of the goodwill you have created for the WU Brand is being eroded every day you’re not transacting. If you know of any agents that are experiencing difficulty please free to pass on my details.
Regards
Jerome Jones | Western Union – General Manager
Australian Newsagents’ Federation Ltd
Level 3, 33-35 Atchison Street, St Leonards NSW 2065
D 61 2 8425 9617 | F 61 2 8425 9699
jerome@anf.net.au | www.anf.net.au
Having been through, and successfully come out the other side of, the mandated process described above, I am not at all suprised at agents not completing the process Canberra has put in place. It is an appalling abortion of a procedure, to little end. More and more of our governance is going this way, it keeps public servants in jobs but unfortunately we small businessess cannot pay their wages for much longer. It is hitting a nut with a sledghammer to have agents of 17 yrs standing get a police check, just in case one of our customers “launders” 9 grand overseas !! There is no interest in catching the real crooks any more, because too many important people are making a motza !!
By the way, it took me about three months from beginning to end to do all the rubbish required by AUSTRAC, with NUMEROUS long phone calls where I was read out loud just about every paragraph of an enormous document, and had to send over and over again copies ( which got “lost”) of gumph. The person who designed this process is responsible for wasting about two full days of my time, but of course, I can’t bill them. Poor old ANF, they must be having a bastard of a time with all this. It isn’t their fault OR WU’s fault, it is our own government making this stuff up !!
dropped WU couple of years ago because of the increased compliance, best move we ever made.
Is there really that much use now for Western Union apart from sending money to Nigerian Princes and fake online Chinese/HK stores.