Due to the possibility of terrorist funding, financial institutions and intermediaries will need to report suspicious transactions
FIU: According to the new guidelines, financial institutions and intermediaries are required to share Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) with the FIU. FIU analyzes the reports and shares them with various investigation and intelligence agencies.
The country's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has issued a fresh warning to capital markets, insurance companies, online payment gateway intermediaries, and cryptocurrency service providers to check terrorist funding. This warning has been issued for effective investigation of suspicious transactions in their channels under the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism funding regime.
The new guidelines have been issued under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during 2022-23. These have been published in a recently released report. These guidelines are part of the anti-money laundering and countering the funding of terrorism (CFT) regime. According to this, financial institutions and intermediaries are required to share a Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) with the FIU. FIU analyzes the reports and shares them with various investigation and intelligence agencies.
The approach by which the FIU obtains information about transactions in the securities market is altered strategically by the new guidelines. Emerging risks like manipulative trading practices in stock exchanges and depositories, stock brokers embezzling client funds, and questionable off-market transactions will all be covered by these alerts.
Market infrastructure institutions will concentrate on the areas outlined in the new guidelines. As a result, reporting quality will increase. It will also make it easier for the FIU to provide law enforcement organizations like the DRI, Enforcement Directorate, CBI, and Income Tax Department with relevant intelligence.
