Fully licensed conduct authority with central bank clearing rails, real-time settlement tracing and world-class reporting. Every stage documented and visible to the parties concerned.
Fully licensed authority with central bank clearing rails and world-class APIs.
Global solutions →Banking Circle is designed to meet the global release needs of settlement counterparties, custodians and payment businesses.
About the Authority →We are powered by ISO-certified security, strict compliance, and direct central bank access.
Learn more →Effortlessly manage your releases and FX conversions with our intuitive, PSD2-compliant client portal. Access instantly. No integration required.
Discover the portal →Online services
Submit a new conduct review through the secure portal.
View the status of your existing review request.
Speak with the review office about your case.
The Banking Circle is an independent body established and operating across Australia and the Pacific, serving parties throughout the region and beyond. Its officers sit apart from the institutions whose settlements they examine, and hold no commercial interest in the outcome of any review — the condition on which the value of an independent determination rests.
The Authority exists for one purpose: determining whether a settlement has reached finality, and recording that determination in writing. It is not a bank, a broker or an adviser. That narrow remit is deliberate — a body asked to do everything can be relied upon for nothing, and finality is a question that admits of a clear answer.
Every request follows the same defined path — lodgement, review, assessment and determination — regardless of the party or the sum involved. Each stage is timestamped on the case file and visible to the party throughout, so nobody is left to wonder whether their matter is moving or where it presently sits.
When a settlement is disputed, delayed or simply unclear, the parties to it need one thing above all: an authoritative answer to whether the matter is closed. The Authority provides that answer. It examines the instruments and the standing of each party, sets out in writing what remains outstanding, and issues a dated determination on which the parties can rely. Where a determination is made, the Authority then oversees the orderly release of the settled balance.
The Banking Circle
Set up your settlement account in minutes and receive your access token on screen. Once your identity is verified, your refund is paid into the account and you can send or convert funds from your portal.
No payment is taken to open an account.
How opening works
Apply online
Name, email and the currency you want the account held in.
Get your access token
Issued the moment the account is opened.
Verify your identity
Upload your documents in the secure portal.
Receive your refund
Approved funds are credited to the account.
Case referrals
Every case administered here originates from a finality review conducted by the AustralPacific Finality Review Panel (afrpgov.com). The Panel decides whether a settlement has reached finality; the Banking Circle opens the account, holds the settled balance and executes the release. Neither side can act alone — a payment leaves only once the Panel's determination is on file and your account has passed verification.
If your review is already open with the Panel, quote your AFRP reference on the account application so the two records are linked from the start.
Visit the AFRP websiteAFRP reviews the case
The AustralPacific Finality Review Panel examines the settlement, verifies each party and issues a written, dated finality determination.
We hold and pay the funds
The Banking Circle opens the settlement account and releases the balance against your beneficiary instruction once the determination is recorded.
You complete the requirements
Identity, source of funds and any requirement set on your file are satisfied in your portal, so both sides work from the same record.
All portal sessions are protected with encrypted authentication and secure account controls.
Clients and review officers operate in strictly separated environments with distinct permissions.
Every assessment, determination and rejection is recorded against the request with a full status trail.
Clients see the live status of every request — from submission through review to final determination.
Submission and determination dates are permanently recorded for every review on file.
Each request carries a unique Banking Circle reference number for unambiguous identification.
Every element of the Banking Circle platform is designed around control, accountability and record-keeping.
Finality determinations are taken by the Authority's review committee, separately from the officers who administer client accounts.
Every client is identified through government-issued photo identification, a recent bank statement and a live facial verification capture before a review may proceed.
Each instruction is screened against the beneficiary details on file, and the stated purpose of the settlement is documented before a determination.
Account and routing details are validated against the format required by the beneficiary's country before an instruction reaches the determination stage.
The Authority operates under a documented conduct review framework. No determination is issued until each of the following controls has been satisfied and recorded.
The Banking Circle is an independent body and is not a government body, central bank or public regulator. The controls described above apply solely to reviews administered through the Authority's own portal.
Reviews are determined only upon a written instruction from the entitled party, following a documented decision of the review office. No determination may be effected on a verbal instruction.
In line with the Anti-Money-Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth) and the Know Your Customer standards of the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), the Authority identifies and verifies every client before a review is determined, and keeps that identification on file.
Payment instructions carry complete payer and payee information as required by the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 (Cth). Incomplete beneficiary details are returned to the client for correction before determination.
Settlements executed to a beneficiary account in Australia or the Pacific region follow the execution and information duties of the relevant national payments legislation as applied by the executing institution.
Personal data and identification documents are processed solely for the purposes of conduct review and statutory record-keeping, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles. Clients may request a copy of the data held on their case.
The Authority administers conduct reviews in accordance with the following instruments of Australian law and the corresponding provisions of Pacific jurisdictions.
The references above are provided for information. The Banking Circle is an independent body and is not an institution, agency or body of the Australian government, nor a national supervisory authority. Clients requiring a formal legal opinion on their settlement should seek independent advice.
The party lodges a request through the secure Client Portal, identifying the settlement, the parties to it and the purpose of the review. A case reference is issued immediately and every later step is recorded against it.
Required at lodgement: the settlement reference, the beneficiary details for any eventual release, the amount and currency, and the purpose of the conduct review.An officer examines the request and its supporting instruments, and confirms the standing of each party. Where something further is needed, a written requirement is attached to the file rather than left to be guessed at.
Common requirements: a photo identification document, a recent bank statement, a live facial capture, answers to security questions, or a figure set by the institution concerned.Once every requirement is satisfied, the matter is assessed on its merits and a finality determination is prepared. Assessment does not begin while anything remains outstanding with the party.
The party can see at any time which items are satisfied, which are under review, and which are still awaited from them.The determination is issued in writing, dated and recorded on the case file. Where finality is determined, the settled balance is released against the beneficiary instruction held on file.
The party is notified in the portal and by email at the address on record. Value dates for receipt are governed by the destination banking arrangements.Every matter passes through the same four stages, in the same order. Nothing is skipped for convenience and no stage begins before the one before it is complete — which is why a party is never asked twice for the same item, and never told a matter is progressing when in truth it is waiting on them.
Every request receives a case reference and an acknowledgement on the portal record as soon as it is lodged. Nothing is progressed until the reference exists.
An officer confirms the request identifies the settlement, the parties and the purpose, and that the mandatory identification items are on file. Incomplete requests are returned with the specific item named.
Where further material is needed, requirements are attached to the case file with written instructions. The clock on the review pauses while a requirement sits outstanding with the party.
The Authority examines the instruments and the standing of each party. Complex multi-party settlements, or those involving cross-border custody, sit at the longer end of this window.
The determination is written, dated and recorded on the case file. The party is notified through the portal and by email at the address on record.
Release is executed against the beneficiary instruction held on file. Correspondent banking arrangements in the destination jurisdiction govern the final value date.
The windows below are indicative service standards, not commitments. A review advances only as quickly as the material before it allows, and the most common cause of delay by a wide margin is an outstanding requirement awaiting a response from the party. Progress is always visible on the case file — a party never needs to ask whether something has moved.
The funds under review originated from a digital-asset transaction — an exchange withdrawal, trading position or transfer of virtual assets — carried out before the case reached the Authority.
The Authority establishes the origin of the digital assets and the identity of the entitled party. Transaction provenance, the originating platform and the conversion record are documented on the case file.
Identification, beneficiary verification and any outstanding requirements are cleared. Nothing proceeds until each control recorded against the case is satisfied.
The cleared balance is released once, in fiat currency, to the beneficiary bank account on file. This is the concluding stage of the review — no further release, conversion or transfer follows it.
Every case administered by the Authority arises from a transaction that originated in digital assets. The Authority does not trade, hold or convert crypto-assets on a client's behalf: it administers the conduct review stage only — the single, closing release of the cleared balance into a nominated bank account.
Digital-asset settlements are reviewed with regard to the Digital Assets (Market Regulation) Bill, the AUSTRAC guidance on digital asset exchanges, and the anti-money-laundering duties set out in the regulatory framework above.
The Authority's authority is deliberately narrow. It is an oversight body, not a market participant. Understanding that boundary is the single most useful thing a party can know before lodging a request, because it determines what the Authority can be asked to decide and what must be resolved elsewhere.
Enquiries relating to an existing case should quote the Banking Circle case reference issued to you.
The review office responds to written enquiries in the order received. Please do not send identification documents by email — upload them securely inside your portal.
Email the Review OfficeMonday to Friday, 09:00 – 17:00 (AEST). Written enquiries are acknowledged within two business days.
Existing clients may message the Authority directly from within their portal.
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