Among its main functions, the FIU is responsible for receiving, requesting, analyzing, investigating and disseminating information concerning all suspected proceeds of crime and suspicious transactions, as provided for pursuant to the Financial Intelligence Unit Act and information relating to the property of terrorist groups and terrorist financing. The Financial Intelligence Unit is also responsible for developing intelligence with a view to detecting money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing and other financial crimes and shall establish a database on cases with a view of detecting money trails.
In this regard, the FIU through its Analytical Department produces intelligence and other reports that assist law enforcement in identifying targets to advance criminal investigations. Additionally, the Analytical Department produces reports that assist regulatory and other competent authorities in the carrying out of their respective responsibilities. The information to intelligence development processes within the FIU range from the collection, analysis, preparation and dissemination of reports detailing the findings of such analysis.
Information gathered by the FIU may be relevant to conducting operational or tactical analysis in respect of specific suspicious transaction/activity reports or be applied to more strategic analysis products that may inform longer-term decision making. Therefore, the intelligence products produced by FIU staff will generally be either operational or strategic intelligence.
Operational intelligence products include value added suspicious transaction/activity reports, results of information relating to financial profiles developed after arrests by law enforcement agencies, results of analysis of information received from other sources - including foreign agencies, information from domestic government agencies among others. To develop meaningful operational intelligence, the Analysts within the Analytical Department will need to consider many pieces of information, gathered from disparate sources. Much of that information will be held by or readily available to the FIU. Operational intelligence is not only relevant to the development of individual STRs/SARs and investigative leads, but also to identifying new cases from data stored within the Unit’s database.
Strategic intelligence products assist in decision making; such products are usually the result of detailed search of data covering a wider time span. An analytical report on the analysis of all SARs received by the FIU during a 1-3 year period is a good example of a strategic intelligence product. The analysis of money laundering methods and trends over an extended period is another typical strategic analysis product that the FIU may embark upon.