The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 requires American Express to introduce additional verification procedures for new Corporate Card applicants.

To comply with the new legislation, American Express must verify the identity (including; name, residential address and date of birth) of all new Corporate Card applicants against a primary identification document such as a current passport or current Australian driver’s licence.

We are also required to verify that the information provided on any new Card application matches the primary identification provided by the applicant. Verification can be done by:

  1. An approved Verifying Officer within your company. The Verifying Officer must countersign the Corporate Card application form to confirm that the details on the application match the details on the identification document. A copy of the identification document must also be returned with the completed Corporate Card application.

    To appoint a Verifying Officer, please nominate an appropriate member of your staff, and ask them to complete and fax the Verifying Officer Registration Form to (02) 9266 3579. To download a Verifying Officer Registration Form please click here

  2. By a Certified Signatory. The applicant provides a copy of their photo identification document that is authenticated as a true copy of the original by a recognised Certified Signatory, such as a Justice of the Peace. The certified copy of the photo identification document must be attached to the Corporate Card application.
American Express strongly encourages you to appoint a Verifying Officer within your organisation. This will free applicants from having to find an external certified signatory and may reduce delays in processing new Card applications.

From 14 July 2008, all new Corporate Card applicants should be using the new Corporate Cardmember Application Forms.

To obtain copies of the new Corporate Cardmember Application Forms, please click here

Please ensure that all current application forms are now discarded including any that may be stored electronically and only the new application forms are used.

To remain compliant American Express can not accept any old application forms received on or after October 30 and strongly recommends that you change over to the new forms immediately if you haven’t already done so.

To download/access new Corporate Cardmember Application Forms, please click here
To download/access a copy of the Verifying Officer Registration Form, please click here

Certified Signatories in Australia include:

  • A registered legal practitioner (solicitor)
  • A judge
  • A magistrate
  • A CEO of a Commonwealth court
  • A registrar or deputy registrar of a court
  • A Justice of the Peace
  • A notary public
  • A police officer
  • An Australia Post agent/manager/owner
  • An Australia Post employee with 2+ years of continuous employment
  • An Australian consular officer or an Australian diplomatic officer
  • An American Express Employee
  • A member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, CPA Australia or the National Institute of Accountants with 2 or more years of continuous membership
  • A registered officer of a financial institution or financial Company with 2+ years of continuous employment.
Overseas applicants should use the following Certified Signatories only:
  • A judge
  • A magistrate
  • A notary public
  • An Australian consular officer or an Australian diplomatic officer
  • An American Express Employee
In order to certify the copy of the Primary Photo Identification Document, the Certified Signatory must put the following details on the Identification copy:
  1. Print full name of the Certified Signatory (mandatory)
  2. Signature (mandatory)
  3. Date
  4. Category of certified Signatory (e.g. Justice of Peace) (mandatory)
  5. Stamp, seal or identification number of Certified Signatory

Visit http://www.ag.gov.au/aml for more information on the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006.