TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– Money laundering is a financial crime that does not directly affect a business but poses a serious threat to a nation's stability and security. The Australian Anti‐money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act (AML/CTF Act – the Act) passed into law in 2006, but achieving compliance is proving a daunting task, especially within the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector. This paper aims to propose a co‐designed communication strategy, which if adopted by the Australian regulator, AUSTRAC, could improve communication and education about the Act within this sector.Design/methodology/approach– A literature review is done to understand the complexities of the Act and its compliance regime, especially with regards to SME. By establishing the importance of SME to a country's economy, as well as the need for AUSTRAC to understand their limitations, this paper uses the concepts of design in communication, and the importance of involving stakeholders in designing solutions, to develop a communication strategy.Findings– It is clear that the current compliance regime is not very successful, and a better communication strategy would achieve better education among the SME sector and could result in better compliance indices.Research limitations/implications– This paper is based on the available literature including journals, white papers and the AUSTRAC website and did not involve in‐person communication or contact with either the stakeholders or AUSTRAC.Originality/value– This paper is first of its kind to propose the use of “design” in order to improve the AML/CTF compliance indices. VL - 21 IS - 1 SN - 1358-1988 DO - 10.1108/13581981311297849 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/13581981311297849 AU - Kelkar Ameya AU - Rao Asha PY - 2013 Y1 - 2013/01/01 TI - Co‐designing compliance to the Anti‐Money Laundering Act within the small and medium enterprise sector T2 - Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 84 EP - 101 Y2 - 2024/04/20 ER -