The Department of Internal Affairs says it has filed the first civil proceedings under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 since it took effect on 30 June 2013.

The proceedings are in Auckland High Court against two Auckland-based money remitters: Qian DuoDuo Ltd (trading as Lidong Foreign Exchange) and Ping An Finance (Group) New Zealand Company Ltd.

The department says these are separate proceedings commenced against each of the money remitters.

"It is not alleged that Qian DuoDuo Ltd or Ping An Finance (Group) New Zealand Company Ltd were actually involved in money laundering or the financing of terrorism," it says.

"Rather, the department alleges that Qian DuoDuo Ltd and Ping An Finance (Group) New Zealand Company Ltd failed to meet AML/CFT Act requirements involving customer due diligence, account monitoring and record keeping. It is also alleged that Qian DuoDuo Ltd failed to establish, implement and maintain an effective AML/CFT programme."

The department says there are three supervisory agencies in New Zealand under the Act. 

The Department of Internal Affairs supervises casinos, non-deposit taking lenders, money changers, money remitters, payroll remitters, debt collectors, factors, financial leasors, safe deposit box vaults, non-bank credit card providers, stored value card providers and cash transporters, and any other reporting entities not supervised by the Reserve Bank or the FMA.

The Reserve Bank supervises registered banks, life insurers and non-bank deposit takers.

The Financial Markets Authority supervises issuers of securities, licensed supervisors, fund managers, brokers and custodians, financial advisers, derivatives issuers, DIMS providers and peer to peer lending and equity crown funding service providers.