In Search of Transnational Financial Intelligence: Questioning Cooperation Between Financial Intelligence Units

Abstract

Financial intelligence units are the critical national agencies at the core of the finance-security assemblage which deals with flows of illicit money, widely known as dirty money. Cooperation between these agencies is presented as ‘the cornerstone of the international efforts to counter money laundering/terrorist financing’. But how does the transnational sharing of financial intelligence operate in practice? The chapter looks at the range of devices, issues, and related difficulties involved in developing cooperation between financial intelligence units. The first section of this chapter sheds light on the communication channels that the financial intelligence units use and how they use them, at European and international level. The second section focuses on the main tensions in transnational financial intelligence.