The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units issued its latest Communiqué resulting from its meeting in Monaco last week. Its focus: terrorist financing.

Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) meets regularly to come up with ways to promote the development of FIUs and to cooperate, especially in the areas of information exchange, training, and the sharing of expertise. As of 2015, the Group is currently comprised of 151 member FIUs. Egmont Group said its goal is to provide a forum for FIUs around the world to improve cooperation in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism and to foster the implementation of domestic programs in this field.

“The increasing actions of terrorists and terrorist organizations such as ISIL, al-Qaida, and their respective affiliates, as demonstrated by recent terrorist acts in Indonesia, Egypt, France, Lebanon, Mali, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States, and the proliferation of Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTFs), poses serious threats to security and international financial stability,” the Egmont Group said in its latest Communiqué.

In response, Egmont Group members have produced an operational analysis of the financing for ISIL FTFs. The project identified challenges and highlighted successes to information sharing in combating terrorist financing. On Feb. 1, the heads (or their designated representatives) of 102 FIUs convened a meeting of its governing body to discuss how the Egmont Group could positively respond to this increasing threat.  

As a result, the FIU leaders, within the context of each jurisdictions terrorist financing risk assessment, adopted the following recommendations and initiatives to:

Provide indicators of terrorism financing to industry partners to assist the identification of suspicious financial activity;

Engage with domestic intelligence agencies to strive to improve the flow of terrorism financing-related information;

Examine the utility of cross-border wire transfer information in the context of combating of terrorism financing;

Consider the reporting of couriers transporting cash or non-cash instruments across borders;

Identify the need to expand the range of reporting entities subject to Suspicious Transaction Reports reporting regime;

Update the Egmont foundational documents to enable spontaneous and multilateral information exchange;

Implement solutions for appropriate access to more sources of information necessary to share actionable financial intelligence to counter of terrorism financing threats;

Continue cooperation with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets the international AML/CTF standards, to overcome information access and sharing challenges and ensure the international standards enable effective combating of terrorist financing; and

Commit to improve FIU capability leveraging expertise and technology to better capitalize on data, exchange intelligence, and enable cooperation.

“By undertaking these initiatives and taking onboard these recommendations, the Egmont Group demonstrates that it recognizes its important role in combating terrorist financing,” the Group said in a statement. It added that improving the flow of financial intelligence through its global network will continue to remain a priority.

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