Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) serve as national centres for the receipt and analysis of suspicious transaction reports and relevant money laundering information, associated predicate offences, and terrorist financing. FIUs are also responsible for disseminating analysis results.
An FIU should obtain additional information from reporting entities and have timely access to required financial, administrative, and law enforcement information to undertake its functions properly. A few major considerations shape an FIU’s creation: anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, existing law enforcement, and the need for an authority that will receive, assess, and share financial information.
TheFATF Interpretive Note to Recommendation 29determines thatifa country’sFIUadheresto the Egmont Group’s Statement of Purpose and Principles for Information Exchange,the FIU should apply for Egmont Group membership.The Egmont Group documents provideimportant guidance concerning the role and functions of FIUs and the mechanisms for exchanging information.
There are four FIU models: judicial, law enforcement,administrative, and hybrid.
- TheJudicial Modeliswhen an FIU isestablished within the judicial branch of government. In this model“disclosures” of suspicious financial activity are received bya country’sinvestigative agencies from its financial sectorsothe judiciary powers canreact(e.g.,seizing funds, freezing accounts, conducting interrogations, detaining people, conductingsearches, etc.).
- TheLaw Enforcement Modelimplements anti-money laundering measures alongside existing law enforcement systems, supporting the efforts of multiple law enforcement or judicial authorities with concurrent, or sometimes competing, jurisdictional authority to investigate money laundering.
- TheAdministrative Modelis a centralized, independent, administrative authority, that receives and processes financial sector information and transmits disclosures to judicial or law enforcement authorities for prosecution. It functions as a “buffer” between the financialand law enforcement communities.
- TheHybrid Modelserves as a disclosure intermediary and a link to both judicial and law enforcement authorities. It combines elements of at least two FIU models.
