In the framework of the joint EU and Council of Europe Technical Support Instrument (TSI), the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division continues to support the Estonian authorities in enhancing the effectiveness of their AML/CFT framework, with special focus on the FIU’s Strategic Analysis Function. 

In this context, following their specific expression of interest in learning from the Polish experience, a delegation of the Estonian FIU travelled to Warsaw to participate in a two-day workshop organised in collaboration with the Polish FIU and hosted in their premises. This encounter provided the opportunity to explore the Polish FIU’s strategic analysis system, practices and related IT tools, and discuss similarities and differences as well as possible future adapted applications in Estonia, as part of the ongoing capacity-building effort for the Estonian FIU in this area.

The workshop fostered substantive exchanges between the Estonian and the Polish FIUs on their respective conceptual visions, practical processes, and technical tools for strategic analysis. The relevant Polish FIU teams presented their National Risk Assessment (NRA) methodology and the system of national cooperation underpinning their NRA elaboration, as well as concrete examples of strategic analysis products, and plans for future developments in this area. They also provided a comprehensive technical demonstration of the set of IT tools they are using to collect, store and process data for operational and strategic analysis purposes. Methods and tools for the prioritisation and analysis of suspicious transaction reports and suspicious activity reports were also presented and discussed. 

This resonated with the Estonian delegation, who engaged actively with thorough questions on all the topics addressed, highlighting the Polish FIU’s advanced model for mass data analytics as a pioneering one in Europe. They also shared information and perspectives from their own experience, examples of challenges encountered, concrete solutions to solve them and good practices identified to date, within their ongoing endeavour to enhance their FIU’s analytical function and its effectiveness. 

This event’s collaborative format indeed allowed for practical discussions on detailed and concrete aspects of the FIUs’ daily work in strategic analysis and related areas, which proved to be effective and useful for the practitioners from both FIUs, with immediately actionable points for them to follow-up on.

This activity was conducted within the framework of the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) project on “Strengthening of Estonian AML framework”, co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Commission.