In line with the Dutch Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft), the Netherlands Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU- the Netherlands) is the central reporting point where various entities with an obligation to report must report unusual transactions.

Mission

FIU- the Netherlands’ mission is – together with its partners, whether public or private, national or international – to prevent and combat money laundering, predicate offences, and terrorism financing, and in this way to safeguard the integrity of the financial system. FIU- the Netherlands contributes to this endeavour by means of effective financial intelligence and by detecting new trends and phenomena and alerting our partners to them.

How do we do this

The Dutch Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (Prevention) Act (Wet ter voorkoming van witwassen en financieren van terrorisme, Wwft) lists various entities with an obligation to report. These reporting entities – ranging from art dealers to banks, and from payment service providers to casinos – serve as the gatekeepers of the financial system. All these gatekeepers are under an obligation to monitor their services for transactions that might be linked to money laundering, predicate offences, and terrorism financing. If they encounter unusual transactions, they report them to FIU- the Netherlands. We then analyse the transactions to establish whether there are sufficient grounds to designate them suspicious. If that is the case, we share these transactions with the investigative, intelligence, and security services. In this way, the entire Wwft chain contributes to the integrity of the financial system. Watch this animation to see how the whole process works.

Why is this important?

The Netherlands’ financial system is extensive, innovative, and internationally oriented. This opens up many opportunities for trade and economic growth. Unfortunately, however, these opportunities benefit not only law-abiding citizens and companies, but also criminals. Because whether it’s drugs or arms trafficking, human exploitation, or environmental crime, money plays a role in virtually all forms of crime. And these flows of criminal money course through our financial system and undermine our society, facilitating and rewarding crime, creating unfair competition, and eroding trust in our financial system. Although it is difficult to estimate the exact extent of such money flows, some studies put the figure at around several billion euro per year. The Netherlands must take a stand against these abuses. This is an important task not only for FIU- the Netherlands, but also for all our partners at home and abroad, such as the gatekeepers and the investigative services.

International cooperation

Crime is an international problem. This means that in the fight against crime the Netherlands cooperates with over 165 countries all over the world with a similar system. Click here for more information about international cooperation.