Over 7,000 suspicious transaction reports filed with FIAU in 2021

Over 7,000 supicious transaction reports were filed with the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) in 2021, up my around 40% compared to the previous year. 

The FIAU's annual report shows increased reporting on suspicious transactions and financial activity. Such reports are received by the anti-money laundering agency from banks, legal professionals, gaming companies, casinos, or real estate agencies, when large amounts of money and their source cannot be accounted for.

There has been a notable increase in suspicious transaction and activity reporting. In 2021, 7,218 reports were filed with the unit, up by 39% from 2020 when 5,175 reports were filed.

Similar to recent years, remote gaming companies were responsible for over half of reports last year, with 4,822 reports in 2021.

Credit institutions and Virtual Financial Asset providers accounted for 12% and 6% of submitted reports respectively.

In 82% of suspicious reports, the subject of the report was a natural person. In all o ther cases the report was submitted on an organisation or entity.

22% of the natural persons subject to a suspicious report were from the United States, while 13% were Maltese. Meanwhile 36% of the organisations about which a report was received were Maltese.

Reasons for suspicion

In 38% of reports filed to the FIAU, the primary reason for suspicion was an unknown source of wealth and funding, or a refusal on the person’s side to provide information or documentation on their source of wealth.

The second most common reason for suspicion was unexplained or inconsistent transaction activity in a customer profile, such as a sudden large volume of deposits not in line with the customer’s known profile.

In 20% of cases, the subject of the report would have featured in adverse media sources.

When companies or institutions submit a suspicious transaction report, a predicate offence is also reported.

But in 57% of reports, the predicate offence could not be established immediately. Instead, the person filing the report would identify the suspicious activity or transaction and report it to the FIAU.

However, the most reported predicate offence was fraud, comprising 31% of submitted reports. Tax crimes were the second most common report at 16%.

International cooperation

Part of the FIAU’s intelligence responsibilities includes requesting cooperation and information to or from other financial intelligence units in other countries.

In 2021, the FIAU sent 928 requests, and received 290.

Help was mostly requested from Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Lithuania and Switzerland. Meanwhile, financial intelligence units in Italy, Germany, France, Lithuania and Finland were the top five senders that requested assistance from the FIAU.

The FIAU sent over 7,000 spontaneous intelligence reports, while only receiving 152 reports. 11% of reports were sent to the US, while 29% of the reports received by the FIAU were from Germany.