Concerns at the international, regional, and national levels about the increasing sophistication of financial crime and the strategies transnational organised crime groups use to launder money have led to increased interest in exploring innovative initiatives that optimise available information and resources. Public-private sector information sharing initiatives have been seen as a useful mechanism for optimising resources, garnering new insights on financial information and intelligence and improving reporting on financial crimes and transnational organised crime activities. However, a tension exists between the international community’s encouragement of greater public-private sector information and intelligence sharing on financial crime issues, and the extent to which international instruments (including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Standards) actually support that sharing. This tension has caused some commentators to doubt the effectiveness of anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, and counter-proliferation financing (AML/CTF/CPF) frameworks in enabling public and private sector entities to identify, mitigate, and prevent their financial crime risks.
In its current form, the FATF Standards’ focus is on providing financial intelligence units and law enforcement agencies with the information they need to identify, investigate, and prosecute financial crimes. This focus, however, effectively discounts the private sector’s role need for information and intelligence from diverse sources to fruitfully contribute to AML/CTF/CPF efforts.
The increasing complexity of the evolving criminal environment warrants that the FATF reconsider its position and provide a clear, demonstrable basis for public-private sector information sharing. Moreover, the FATF must also consider granting the private sector a more active position in FATF activities. Implementing these reforms would not only recognise the importance of public-private sector collaboration in combatting financial crime, they would also offer the prospect of optimising the financial intelligence and information holdings of both the public and private sectors to the benefit of those sectors and the broader community.
