FIU reports a decrease in suspicious transaction reports
– 29 new reporting agencies registered
Matthew Langevine, Director, Financial Intelligence Unit
Kaieteur News – The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) says 29 new reporting agencies have registered on its database this year to support the fight against money laundering.
FIU Director Matthew Langevine revealed that this brings the total number of new agencies registered to 246.
Many of the entities are banks, cambios, money transfer agencies, gold and diamond dealers, and the gambling sector, including lotteries and casinos. Real estate agencies and car dealers are among several entities from the non-financial sectors also on board the ship.
“What that does in effect is that it allows us to get a large amount of data coming into the FIU, which is more effective in helping us understand the financial transactions of individuals who may be is the subject of investigations, ”Langevine told DPI on Monday.
He said the reporting entities continue to fulfill their obligations to the FIU, including reporting suspicious transactions, and submitting threshold transaction reports and terrorist property.
The head of the FIU said the agency was able to cooperate with local and international law enforcement agencies as there had been many “changes to the types of transactions and threats that exist within the financial sector.”
Langevine, meanwhile, said the FIU has also seen reports of suspicious transactions fall for 2020. This, he said, may be due to reduced financial activities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said with several businesses closing during the start of the pandemic, reports of suspicious transactions had also diminished.
At the end of November, the FIU had received about 309 reports of suspicious financial transactions against 467 in 2019.
“Importantly, the sources of dubious transactions continue to be dominated by money transfer agencies, commercial banks, and, to a lesser extent, the gold trading sector. Overall, it has allowed us to support law enforcement efforts to investigate criminal laundering and money laundering schemes, ”he said.
The FIU was established under the Anti-Money Laundering Prevention of Terrorism Financing (AML / CFT) Act, to support law enforcement with money laundering investigations. Its main work involves receiving, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspected financial crimes (DPI)