Attorney-General Graham Leung presented the 2023 Annual Report of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in Parliament on Monday. Acting Director of FIU, Esther Sue, noted that 2023 was a particularly challenging year, with changing financial crime trends leading to increased demand for the unit’s financial intelligence and expertise from law enforcement agencies.
Sue explained that as an intelligence agency, the FIU engages in proactive measures to refer financial intelligence to law enforcement for the investigation and prosecution of serious financial crimes. The FIU also supports these agencies in tracking and seizing the proceeds of criminal activity.
In the past year, the FIU issued a total of 429 intelligence reports to various law enforcement bodies, regulatory organizations, and government ministries. Many of these reports were generated from suspicious transaction reports submitted to the FIU by financial institutions across Fiji.
Furthermore, in 2023, the FIU completed a risk assessment focusing on money laundering and terrorist financing in Fiji’s banking sector, with the report now available on the FIU’s website. Sue emphasized that as a regulatory body, the FIU aims to ensure that financial institutions maintain robust internal controls to prevent their services from being exploited by criminals for activities such as money laundering and terrorist financing.
The FIU also carried out risk-based supervision of financial institutions and non-financial businesses, including legal practitioners, real estate agents, and accountants. On-site assessments were conducted for several real estate agents and legal practitioners to evaluate their adherence to anti-money laundering regulations. This was complemented by offsite monitoring to ensure compliance among financial institutions and other businesses. The risk-based supervision approach allows the FIU to focus its compliance resources on high-risk entities amid the large number of institutions it oversees.
To foster digital innovations within the payment system, the FIU released a new guideline to guide financial institutions on the implementation of digital ID systems for customer due diligence or electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) processes.
The Acting Director of the FIU expressed gratitude for the strong support from the Reserve Bank of Fiji, which funds the unit, as well as for the contributions of financial institutions and partner law enforcement agencies to the FIU’s work and accomplishments in 2023.