LAST year more than 300 reports of suspicious activity and transactions were made to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Attorney General Anand Ramlogan said yesterday.
He was speaking in the Senate on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago and Anti-Terrorism) Bill 2012.
He said for the review period, 303 suspicious activity reports and suspicious transaction reports were filed with the FIU in 2011, almost triple the figure of 111 in 2010.
“It shows that the FIU is working, and not just working, but working well,” he said.
He noted that the large majority of suspicious activity reports, 58 out of 111 in 2010, were from the banking sector while the total monetary value of reports was $263 million. He commended the banking sector for providing that type of sensitive information to the FIU and for putting in place safeguards to detect and flag suspicious transactions.
He pointed out that the FIU was a “go between” between the financial institutions and the law enforcement bodies, noting that some institutions may not be eager to send sensitive information directly to the police or another entrenched agency. He added that the FIU has the type of expertise that the police service would not have.
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