Tranche 2 AML/CTF Compliance for Real Estate: How FrankieOne Powers PEXA Clear

For years, AML/CTF obligations have been the domain of banks and financial institutions. That's changing.

Australia's Tranche 2 AML/CTF reforms, coming into effect on 1 July 2026, will extend anti-money laundering requirements to real estate agents, conveyancers, and legal practitioners for the first time. It's a significant shift: approximately 100,000 new reporting entities will come under AUSTRAC regulation, and they'll be responsible for compliance across a property market worth over $12 trillion.

Why real estate is a target for money laundering

The rationale is clear. Real estate has long been identified as a high-risk sector for money laundering. AUSTRAC's 2024 national risk assessment noted that property remains "a widely exploited asset type" due to its market stability, value appreciation, and the ease of obscuring beneficial ownership through complex legal structures. Australia is currently the only OECD country that hasn't fully implemented AML/CTF laws for these gatekeeper professions. Tranche 2 closes that gap.

But beyond property, this signals something bigger. Regulators globally are widening the net, pushing compliance obligations into industries that have historically operated outside these frameworks. Accountants, lawyers in other practice areas, and professional services are expected to follow.

For enterprise platforms serving these industries, the question isn't whether compliance requirements will reach them. It's how they'll respond when they do.

This is exactly the challenge PEXA Group faced. And when they set out to build an AML/CTF compliance platform for the property industry, they chose FrankieOne to power it.

Why PEXA partnered with FrankieOne for Tranche 2 compliance

PEXA has facilitated more than 20 million property settlements in Australia. They know the industry inside out. And when it came time to build an AML/CTF compliance platform that could handle identity verification, KYC, KYB, and risk screening at scale, they needed a partner who could deliver.

The result is PEXA Clear: a purpose-built AML/CTF compliance platform launching in July 2026 to help property professionals meet their new AUSTRAC obligations.

For us at FrankieOne, this partnership represents exactly what we set out to do. We help enterprise platforms embed identity, verification, and compliance capabilities at scale, without the complexity of managing dozens of point solutions.

PEXA understood where compliance pain points would hit hardest in the property sector: high-volume, time-sensitive transactions where manual checks simply don't scale. Rather than build verification and screening capabilities from scratch, they partnered with FrankieOne to orchestrate the entire compliance layer. That includes identity verification, KYC, KYB, sanctions screening, adverse media checks, and risk assessments. All through a single integration.

As Simon Costello, CEO of FrankieOne, explains:

"By combining FrankieOne's best-of-breed identity, KYB and risk orchestration capabilities with PEXA Clear's deep understanding of property workflows, we're enabling businesses and individuals to be verified in a highly automated, seamless way. This reduces friction for designated service providers, while ensuring strong, consistent compliance outcomes as Tranche 2 obligations come into effect."

One integration, ecosystem-wide impact

What makes this partnership different is the scale.

PEXA doesn't serve a single customer. They're the infrastructure layer for an entire industry. A single integration with FrankieOne means conveyancers, legal practitioners, and real estate agents across Australia can access enterprise-grade verification and compliance capabilities, without each one needing to build or buy their own.

This is the "one-to-many" model we've built FrankieOne around. Platforms integrate once, and their entire ecosystem benefits from consistent, auditable compliance workflows, powered by access to more than 350 identity, fraud, and compliance data sources globally.

For enterprise platforms thinking about how to extend compliance capabilities to their customers or partners, this is the blueprint.

What this signals for other industries

Property is just the beginning. Tranche 2 brings real estate, conveyancing, and legal practitioners into the AML/CTF framework, but the direction of travel is clear. With Australia facing potential grey-listing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its 2026 evaluation, the pressure to expand and enforce these obligations will only increase.

For enterprise platforms operating in or adjacent to these industries, this partnership offers a glimpse of what's coming. The platforms that move early, building compliance infrastructure before it becomes mandatory, will be better positioned than those scrambling to retrofit it later.

Orchestration makes that possible. Instead of integrating with individual verification providers, screening databases, and risk tools one by one, platforms can connect once to FrankieOne and access more than 350 data sources globally. When regulations shift, the orchestration layer adapts. The platform doesn't have to rebuild.

That's the model PEXA Clear is built on. And it's the model we expect more enterprise platforms to adopt as compliance obligations continue to expand.

Key dates for Tranche 2 compliance

Registrations for PEXA Clear open in March 2026, ahead of the 1 July 2026 compliance deadline. For property professionals preparing for Tranche 2, it's a ready-made path to meeting AUSTRAC requirements. For enterprise platforms watching from other industries, it's a case study in how to scale compliance without scaling complexity.

Key Tranche 2 dates to remember:

• 31 March 2026: AUSTRAC enrolment opens for Tranche 2 entities
• 1 July 2026: AML/CTF obligations commence for real estate, conveyancing, and legal sectors
• 29 July 2026: Deadline for new reporting entities to complete enrolment

If you're an enterprise exploring how orchestration can simplify identity, fraud, or AML/CTF compliance, get in touch.