From reports to intelligence
A financial intelligence unit, or FIU, receives and analyses financial information to help detect crime. AUSTRAC is Australia’s FIU. It uses reports from regulated businesses and other information to produce financial intelligence.
AUSTRAC shares information with authorised government partners. Access can differ between partners. Receiving a report and proving an offence are different things.
Source: AUSTRAC: Our financial intelligence unit: analysis and domestic and international partnerships.
What Egmont does
The Egmont Group supports cooperation between FIUs. Its information exchange principles cover legal authority, requests, permitted use, confidentiality and secure exchange. They do not give a business permission to disclose customer records.
AUSTRAC’s exchange instruments list records international arrangements. An arrangement’s existence does not show that particular customer information was exchanged.
Sources: Egmont Group: Introduction and paragraphs 8 to 19; AUSTRAC: Purpose and scope of the exchange instruments list.
- Request
State the facts, purpose and foreign connection.
- Authority
Apply the legal and consent conditions.
- Use and protection
Keep the information within permitted uses and secure procedures.
How do financial intelligence units share information
The conditions apply throughout the exchange. FIU cooperation does not authorise a business to disclose customer records.
Separate evidence questions. An answer to one does not settle the others.
Limits follow the information
Under the Egmont principles, exchanged information is for the purpose for which it was sought or provided. Uses beyond the original approval require prior authorisation from the requested FIU. The principles also address consent for dissemination and grounds for refusing cooperation.
The receiving FIU must protect the information under applicable law and agreed procedures. A secure channel does not remove these legal conditions.
Source: Egmont Group: Paragraphs 20 to 24, 31 to 44, especially 32, 34 and 38.
Example: a foreign connection
In a fictional case, an FIU analyst identifies a possible connection with a transaction abroad. The analyst prepares a request that explains the facts, purpose and relevant link. Any response remains subject to its use and disclosure conditions.
The reporting business continues to use its authorised reporting process. It does not send the customer’s file abroad merely because FIUs cooperate.