The FATF standards require that financial intelligence and other relevant information be used appropriately by competent authorities for investigating money laundering, and that money laundering activity being investigated and prosecuted be consistent with the country’s threats and risk profile and national anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism policies. In this relation, the Action against Money Laundering in Türkiye organised a training with the participation of MASAK (Turkish Financial Intelligence Unit - FIU) and law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to share insights and comparative practices on the use of financial intelligence and other information to support money laundering investigations in line with the risk profile, in particular in areas of emerging risk.    

Against this background, the training made appropriate proposals and gave examples for improving the management and sources of financial intelligence to meet LEAs’ operational needs. These included expanding the scope of the information received by the FIU to “other information relevant to money laundering, associated predicate offences” and improving a quick and comprehensive access to additional information by the FIU to perform its analysis properly. Measures for enhancing national cooperation were also advised, illustrated by good practices from other jurisdictions.    

The Turkish authorities were also advised about good practices on strategic analysis to support LEAs, and examples of approaches from France and Spain for enhancing the effectiveness and use of FIU operational analysis to address major money laundering risks. The participants’ knowledge of money laundering typologies and methodologies was updated, with particular focus on new trends and patterns.    

Several case studies explored the money laundering through international controller networks and exploitation of the informal value transfer systems, migrant smuggling, cash smuggling and cryptocurrencies, demonstrating the related trends and typologies, and comparative practices from France, Spain and the UK demonstrating the effective development and use of financial intelligence and other information for money laundering investigations.