To enable the supervisory bodies to carry out their monitoring tasks, each quarter they receive a report from FIU-the Netherlands containing aggregated data about reporting behaviour in the sector under their supervision. Their status as supervisory authority also mandates them to, for instance, approach you directly to request information about your reporting behaviour and – if this is not satisfactory – to give instructions or undertake further steps. Since reporting behaviour falls under the Wwft supervisory authorities, that is where you should turn for any questions about how to interpret the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft), and about what does or does not fall under the Act. The supervisory authorities have written guidelines on this to assist the relevant sectors.

Under the Wwft, FIU-the Netherlands is the implementing party. We receive your unusual transaction reports, and we are the only party that can inspect these unusual transactions. Analysing such transactions is the daily work of a large proportion of our staff. Given that this work is classified as state secret, there are many details that we cannot discuss with you, but this does not mean that we do not welcome your questions. We are not permitted to answer the question of what must be reported and what not. But we can help you with questions about how to report an unusual transaction and how you can ensure your report is as informative as possible. And we try to provide tools to assist you in your task as a gatekeeper of the financial system. You are always welcome to contact us about such matters.

First of all, it is important that you observe confidentiality as set out in Article 23 of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft). This Article prescribes what is possible and what is not. Secondly, it is important to preserve data. When you report an unusual transaction, you will receive a confirmation of receipt from FIU-the Netherlands, which is the proof that you have actually reported one or more transactions. You must keep this confirmation and all other important details of the unusual transaction(s) for five years. Further information can be found in Article 34 of the Wwft .

As explained on the webpage About FIU-the Netherlands, we analyze unusual transactions to assess whether there is sufficient ground to declare them suspicious. If a transaction is declared suspicious, you will be informed of this: the so-called dissemination notification. It is important that you do not jump to conclusions based on this notice. For more information see the frequently asked question ‘’ I have received a Dissemination Notification. What does this mean?’’

You will not be notified if we do not declare an unusual transaction suspicious. However, we do save all unusual transactions for five years as the legislation dictates. So we can still declare transactions suspicious at a later date. For example, due to new reports.