Within the support provided by the Project to the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for the enhancement of its Strategic Analysis Function, the Council of Europe has developed a technical paper with a review of a series of possible IT solutions for the conduction of strategic analysis of money laundering and terrorism financing by the Estonian FIU.
On the 20th of September 2023, the Council of Europe presented the findings of the technical paper to a group of representatives of the Estonian Ministry of Finance and the FIU involved in IT development and data management for strategic analysis, at a workshop held in the FIU’s premises in Tallinn, Estonia. This meeting in person followed a series of online discussions and exchanges held over several months in the process of developing the contents of the paper, in order to ensure their precise relevance to the Estonian context and adequacy with the needs and requirements of the Estonian FIU for the development of their IT system.
The workshop allowed to go over the detailed assessment of several applicable information technologies and available commercial tools that could strengthen the Estonian FIU’s IT infrastructure, considering the next steps envisaged by the authorities for the development of their strategic analysis function. Besides the presentation of the various applicable IT solutions, workshop participants also discussed the potential practical use of specific technologies and IT tools within the Estonian FIU’s existing framework, taking into account different requirements, advantages and limitations of different solutions, their compatibility with other technologies, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) issues and other matters of concern.
Following this detailed technical overview and discussion about available IT solutions, a common understanding was reached about the final contents of the technical paper and the next steps required. It was recognised that a deeper internal needs assessment should be conducted in order to better determine more precise IT requirements for the FIU’s Strategic Analysis Function, before going further into the selection or customisation of specific information technologies and tools. The importance of strategic thinking about the end purpose of the IT system, and the conduction of in-depth needs assessment in order to determine what IT tools are most relevant, was indeed reiterated during the workshop. The extensive and useful information included in the technical paper is to be matched against detailed needs and requirements, once the latter are further determined. Therefore, besides these IT-related aspects, the Council of Europe will also provide advice, in parallel, on the strategic development of the FIU’s strategic analysis function itself and related internal and external processes.
The Head of the Estonian FIU’s Development and Support Department, as well as the other representatives participating in the workshop, expressed high appreciation of the discussions and advice provided, acknowledging the value of this support, in the context of the current endeavour of the Estonian authorities to highly advance their IT systems for more evidence-based and forward-looking strategic analysis of money laundering and terrorism financing.
This activity was conducted in the framework of the joint TSI Project on “Strengthening of the Estonian AML framework” which is funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.