Glossary term
Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)
Subject: Financial Crime, Reporting and FIU
Also known as: FIU, National financial intelligence unit
A financial intelligence unit is a national agency that receives, analyses and passes on reports from banks and other businesses about suspected money laundering, terrorist financing and the proceeds of crime.
Explanation
The FIU is the central point in a country's reporting system. Banks, insurers, dealers and other covered businesses send it suspicious transaction reports and often threshold reports. Analysts combine these with other data, such as tax or customs records, to find patterns. Where they find a case, they pass the intelligence to police, prosecutors or tax bodies. Many FIUs also send guidance and feedback to reporting firms, and cooperate with foreign counterparts. FIUs differ in where they sit, whether in a central bank, a ministry or the police, which affects what they can do. They do not usually prosecute crime themselves. Without an FIU, reports would sit in separate banks' files and no one would see the pattern across them.
Example
A national FIU receives 40 suspicious reports in a month from different banks, each describing small transfers to the same trading firm. Its analysts see the connection that no single bank could, check tax records, and find the firm has never filed a return. The FIU sends a case report to the financial crime police, who open an investigation.
Not to be confused with
- Law enforcement agency
- Police investigate and prosecute offences. An FIU analyses reports and shares intelligence, and in most models has no power to charge anyone.