The Egmont Group was pleased to contribute to last week’s World Customs Organization webinar, with Vice-Chair Daniel Thelesklaf sharing the FIU perspective on cooperation with Customs authorities.
A central message was clear: Customs and FIUs hold complementary data and expertise. When combined, these insights move us beyond isolated signals and support more informed financial intelligence and operational follow-up.
Customs-originated information often provides early indicators of suspicious activity, including cross-border cash movements and trade data. From an FIU perspective, this information adds critical context by linking financial transactions to the physical movement of goods and assets.
Effective cooperation depends on timeliness, clarity, and established channels. Early and structured information sharing enables FIUs to act while transactions remain traceable and supports more actionable analysis.
At the international level, cooperation between Customs and FIUs continues to strengthen the detection of complex, cross-border schemes, including trade-based money laundering. Egmont channels play an important role in extending these efforts across jurisdictions.
As highlighted during the discussion, the Customs–FIU Cooperation Handbook provides practical guidance to support this work and is available on the Egmont Group website: https://egmontgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/2020_CUSTOMS_-_FIU_Cooperation_Handbook.pdf
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