22 Jul 2024
An IOM UN Migration report puts the number of Gambian expatriates at over 118,000. Some of them work and live in Australia due to the country’s robust economy. They make money transfers from Australia to Gambia to offer financial support back home.
Since the process of transferring remittances across borders continues, changes are inevitable in the remittance transfer needs and requirements. So, what you may find irrelevant today may well be the norm tomorrow. You can also expect today’s unimaginable to be tomorrow’s norm.
Therefore, your remittance transfers are regulated by guidelines that are never static and thus keep changing with the changing times. This blog sheds light on the latest guidelines that you must be aware of as a Gambian working in Australia.
Australia is a developed country and has a robust economy. It is the reason why expatriates travel to Australia to seek employment and jobs. But with the huge footprint of migrants, who earn a living and send funds back home to their respective countries, risk factors also increase.
These risk factors include money laundering, financial malpractices, fleecing customers, and so on. You may not be directly involved in all of this. Because you work in Australia, earn a living, and offer financial support back home through different channels like banks and online money transfer service providers. But you can fall prey easily if you are not aware of the latest guidelines that regulate your every online money transfer from Australia to Gambia. Take a look below at the latest procedures that you must follow when transferring funds back home.
One of the biggest challenges for a strong economy like Australia is to stop money laundering. With the mushroom growth of multiple financial institutions, this challenge becomes intense. It gets difficult to set a genuine money transfer apart from the one meant for money laundering.
Therefore, the Australian government has put in place specific policies to ensure:
· Money laundering is stopped
· Those involved are punished and penalized
· Financial institutions distance themselves from firms and individuals indulging in money laundering
Therefore, it is critically important for you to know about the AML policies the Australian government has put in place. Choose your remittance transfer service provider with utmost care and after a deep search. It is essential lest you fall prey to an unscrupulous service provider indulging in money laundering.
It may seem old, but it is not. Each time you find a service provider to send funds back to Gambia, you conduct due diligence. But nowadays, it is more significant as you will find innumerable service providers offering different services and features.
If you look closely, you will realize that some of the service providers make such alluring offers that you simply ignore due diligence. This ignorance can land you in grave trouble. You can either lose your funds as an individual or recover from them, which may be easy. But what if you land in legal complications, and that too in a foreign country where your support network simply does not exist? Therefore, make sure never to ignore due diligence when choosing your service provider and sending funds back home.
A genuine financial institution through which you send money online to Gambia from Australia will follow the Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols. However, some service providers will avoid it and even apply evasive tactics when requested to follow KYC. The reason?
When a service provider follows KYC, it means that they are concerned about who is sending funds, where, to whom, and for what purpose. Because KYS protocols demand that a service provider must:
· Ascertain the identity of the customer
· Know the purpose for which funds are being transferred
· Know the source of income
· Get details of the recipient
These details are essential. The Australian government has made it mandatory for all financial institutions, including banks and remittance transfer service providers, to follow the KYC protocols strictly.
If a service provider or a financial institution deliberately ignores KYC protocols, they are punished. Their license can be canceled, their offices can be sealed, and their property confiscated. They can be penalized financially or face all of these punishments at once.
Remember that the KYC protocols keep changing and evolving according to the trends in the market. Therefore, you must ensure that you know the KYC protocols and also where to turn to if you find that a service provider shies away from following KYC protocols.
As a Gambian working in Australia, you are concerned about your productivity at your workplace. After all, you are there to earn a living and support your family financially back home, for which increased productivity is critically important.
Learn HERE all you must know about how to be productive in Australia as a Gambian migrant.
Another critically important guideline you must be aware of is the compliance policy of the service providers. Every financial institution, be it a bank or an online remittance service provider, works under the supervision of financial regulatory bodies.
In Australia, different financial institutions set policies for every financial institution offering different financial services and products. You must be aware of these regulatory policies, the details of which you can ascertain from the official websites of the institutions concerned.
Remember that after knowing the regulatory compliance policies, you must ask your service provider to show you how they ensure compliance. An authentic service provider will be ready to offer compliance documents and proofs. Therefore, keep a close eye on this aspect.
This is another area that people mostly ignore or take for granted, at best. But beware of this aspect in your remittance transfer journey with anyone. Never forget that the matter involves your hard-earned money. Can you afford to lose it by ignoring an area whose understanding is simple and plain?
Well, then make sure to contact the customer care representatives of a service provider that you have chosen already and talk to them. In case there is a delay, or if something goes wrong mid-transaction, you should have someone to talk to at least.
This is something that you have been doing over the years. But remember that it is as relevant today as it was back then. The reason? Well, the feedback a service provider gets is normally posted on their official websites and other platforms.
This will give you a fair and transparent idea about the service quality of the concerned institution. You will also learn about the weak areas that customers are concerned about. A brief virtual visit will help you with all of this.
When you send money to Gambia from Australia you must choose the right service provider to get the best deals for which due diligence is critically important. Because the matter involves money and other associated costs. Therefore, find a service provider that offers live and market-competitive currency exchange rates. This will help you make financial adjustments for whatever small fee you pay for the process.
Several Gambians work in foreign countries because they cannot find reasonable jobs in their native country. The Gambia is a small African country with a flailing economy that cannot provide for the country’s entire population. It leads to high rates of unemployment which further causes acute poverty.
Working in Australia is beneficial in several ways. The minimum wages are relatively higher. The country’s economy is strong, which means the government has an expansive job market that offers jobs to everyone seeking employment there. Furthermore, you will easily access one of the world’s best healthcare services at subsidized rates.
The latest remittance guidelines for the Gambians working in Australia include Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies, Customer Due Diligence (CDD), Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols, operational compliance with the financial regulatory bodies, customer care services and essentially checking the official websites and other platforms to know the feedback.
Following these guidelines is critically essential for you because if you look away from these, you can land in grave troubles of different types and varying degrees. For example, if you take AML policies for granted, you might end up falling prey to money laundering at the hands of an unscrupulous company. Therefore, make sure to follow these guidelines strictly.
You can find the best cost-effective money transfer deals by finding the right service provider. You can easily do this with due diligence when you are seeing the right company. But make sure to find one that offers you live and market-competitive currency exchange rates and charges you a low fee. These flexible rates will likely compensate you for whatever small amount you pay as fees for the transaction.
