A financial intelligence unit (FIU) is a national body or government agency which collect information on suspicious or unusual financial activity from the financial industry and other entities or professions required to report suspicious transactions, suspected of being money laundering or terrorism financing.
FIUs are normally not law enforcement agencies, but their mission is to process and analyze the information received. If sufficient evidence of unlawful activity is found, the matter is passed to the police or public prosecutors.[1] They complement the apparatus of administrative anti-money laundering supervision, which ensures that obliged entities transmit relevant information to the FIU.
The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units is the global coordination venue for FIUs.
National FIUs include:
The Financial Intelligence Unit Network (FIU.NET) is a decentralized computer network that provides an information exchange between the financial intelligence units of the European Union.[3] FIU.NET is a decentralized system with no central database where the information is collected. All the connected FIUs have their FIU.NET equipment within their own premises and manage their own information. Through FIU.NET the connected FIUs create bilateral or multilateral cases. Ma3tch (autonomous, anonymous, analysis) is a matching tool within FIU.NET. Ma3tch makes it possible for FIUs to match names in order to find relevant data that is possessed by other connected FIUs. As the data is anonymized, there is no breaching of privacy and data protection rules.
FIU.NET is funded by the European Commission and participating FIUs.[4] Currently, the connected EU Member State FIUs are:[5] Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
FIU.NET is governed by a Board of Partners (BoP) formed by connected FIUs that have volunteered for a seat. The Board of Partners is chaired by an independent Director.[6]
Daily operation of the system is managed by the FIU.NET Bureau, a project bureau of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, which is housed in the Europol International headquarters in The Hague.
The United States has several laws requiring the reporting to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). These include the Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA) of 1978,[7] the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 (and other names of revisions), and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act of 1999 (GLBA). Some reports also need to go to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
| Report and definition | Authority | Receiving Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Currency Transaction Report (CTR). Cash transactions in excess of $10,000 during the same business day. The amount over $10,000 can be either from one transaction or a combination of cash transactions. | Bank Secrecy Act | Internal Revenue Service | |
| Negotiable Instrument Log (NIL). Cash purchases of negotiable instruments (e.g., money orders, cashiers checks, travelers cheques) having a face value of $3,000, or more. | Bank Secrecy Act | Internal Revenue Service | |
| Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). Any cash transaction where the customer seems to be trying to avoid BSA reporting requirements (e.g., CTR, NIL). A SAR must also be filed if the customer's actions indicate that s/he is laundering money or otherwise violating federal criminal law. The customer must not know that a SAR is being filed. | Bank Secrecy Act | Financial Crimes Enforcement Network |
Actions that can trigger an SAR being filed include: