Financial intelligence

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Financial Intelligence (or FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enforcement and related activities.

Examples of financial intelligence could include:

  • Identifying high-risk housing tenants on the basis of past rental histories.
  • Deterring tax payers trying to avoid their ficudiary obligations by moving wealth surreptiously out of a tax-levying jurisdiction.
  • Discovering safe havens where criminals park the proceeds of crime.
  • Accounting for how a large sum of money handed to a targeted individual disappears
  • Checking to see if a corrupt individual has had any sudden and unexplained windfalls.
  • Detecting relationships between terrorist cells through remittances.

FININT does not necessarily involve money laundering, which refers to the practice of the undeclared and covert transfer of money or other negotiable item. However FININT is used to detect money laundering, which is often done as part of or as a consequence of some other criminal activity.

FININT involves scrutinising a large volume of transactional data, usually provided by banks as part of regulatory requirements. Transactions made by certain individuals or entities may be studied. Alternatively, data mining or datamatching techniques may be employed to identify persons potentially engaged in a particular activity.

Organisations which engage in FININT include:

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