Attorney-General Graham Leung presented the 2023 Annual Report of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to Parliament on Monday. Acting Director of FIU, Esther Sue, described 2023 as a challenging year, highlighting the need for the FIU’s financial intelligence due to evolving financial crime trends and increased demands from law enforcement agencies.
Sue emphasized the importance of the FIU’s role as an intelligence agency in proactively delivering financial intelligence to law enforcement for investigating and prosecuting serious financial crimes. The FIU also aids in tracking and seizing the proceeds of crime.
During 2023, the FIU issued a total of 429 intelligence reports to law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies, and government ministries. Many of these reports stemmed from suspicious transaction reports submitted to the FIU by various financial institutions in Fiji.
The FIU also completed a risk assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing within Fiji’s banking sector, with the findings now available in a published report on the FIU website.
In her remarks, Sue noted that the FIU’s regulatory role involves ensuring that financial institutions in Fiji maintain robust internal controls to prevent the misuse of their services for money laundering, terrorism financing, and other serious financial crimes.
This year, the FIU conducted risk-based supervision of financial institutions as well as non-financial businesses, including legal practitioners, real estate agents, and accountants. On-site assessments were performed for several real estate agents and legal practitioners to evaluate compliance with anti-money laundering requirements, which was complemented by offsite monitoring of financial institutions and non-financial businesses.
The FIU’s risk-based supervision approach allows it to focus compliance resources on high-risk entities, given the extensive number of institutions it oversees. Additionally, to foster digital innovations in payment systems, the FIU released new guidelines outlining requirements and guidance for financial institutions regarding the use of digital ID systems for customer due diligence or eKYC.
Esther Sue expressed gratitude for the strong support from the Reserve Bank of Fiji, which funds the FIU, as well as from all financial institutions and partner law enforcement agencies for their contributions to the FIU’s work in 2023.