On 11-13 March 2024, the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), organised a Training of Trainers on Strategic Analysis for FIU analysts. The event gathered 20 representatives from 17 jurisdictions, including Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Georgia, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Spain, Türkiye and Ukraine.

Taking into consideration their core functions – which are to receive, analyse and disseminate reports of suspicions on money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) identified and reported by the private sector – the FIUs have the unique power and advantage of having access to vast amounts of financial and other data. The FIUs’ ability to analyse and interpret this data is instrumental, with the strategic analysis being essential in detecting and understanding the patterns and trends of ML/TF, as an indispensable input for the formulation of effective policies, management of operations and the efficient allocation of resources.

Nonetheless, a significant number of FIUs in the Council of Europe Member States and globally, continue facing challenges in carrying out their strategic analysis function and in developing qualitative strategic analysis products. This is confirmed by the results of the FATF and FSRBs’ Mutual Evaluation Reports, which show that more than 73% of the evaluated countries have moderate (44.8%) or low effectiveness (28.5%) for Immediate Outcome 6 (Financial Intelligence on ML/TF).

Therefore, the joint Council of Europe and Egmont Group Training of Trainers (ToT) on Strategic Analysis for FIU analysts has been organised with the aim of creating a pool of trainers that would act as a multiplication factor in providing capacity building on this subject at national but also international level, by delivering the Egmont Group’s Strategic Analysis Course which aims at supporting the FIU employees in understanding the skills, practices and standards required to prepare high quality FIU strategic analysis products.

During the three days of training, participants enhanced their knowledge and practical skills on delivering trainings and transferring knowledge and experience to their peers, as well as regarding the practical benefits of developing strategic analysis, the stages for developing strategic analysis products and the intelligence cycle, as well as related techniques and tools that can facilitate strategic analysis.