Append-Only AML Audit Trail for Your 7-Year Records

Reporting entities must generally retain AML/CTF records for 7 years. AUSTRAC inspectors expect to find records that are complete, dated, attributable to specific staff, and produced without delay.

The records that must be retained include: a record of how each customer was identified and the documents relied on (not copies of the documents themselves), the outcome of every identity verification check, all screening results and how matches were resolved, risk assessments for each client, records of every SMR and TTR lodged and the documents supporting them, your AML/CTF program document and every version of it, and evidence of staff training completion.

Manual record-keeping — folders, spreadsheets, email archives — creates significant risk that records will be incomplete, inconsistently dated, or difficult to locate under inspection pressure. ClearAML reduces this risk by logging key events automatically and making records instantly searchable.

An append-only audit trail is one where new events can be added, but existing entries cannot be edited, overwritten, or deleted by users of the platform. ClearAML's audit log is built on this principle. Once an event is recorded — whether it's an identity verification outcome, a risk rating decision, or a staff quiz completion — that entry stays in your log.

This matters to AUSTRAC because it makes the record dependable. If an entry shows a client was screened on a specific date, the append-only log supports that the entry was made at that time and has not been changed by a user since. This is the kind of evidence regulators expect from compliance systems operating under the AML/CTF Act.