Since the Bureau’s establishment, FCMN has played a significant role in the U.S. Government’s efforts to combat transnational organized crime. FCMN carries out its mission by providing investigative support to law enforcement, intelligence, and regulatory agencies, cooperating globally with counterpart financial intelligence units (FIUs), and using its regulatory authorities to make it more difficult for organized criminal groups to move money through the financial system. FCMN supports the Department of the Treasury’s efforts to promote the adoption of international standards involving anti-money laundering and the counter-financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), The National Security Council identified FCMN as one of 34 universal entities that it considered as having a significant role in the fight against international crime as noted in an August 2001 Government Accountability Office report.
FCMN serves as the FIU in many countries; an FIU is the central agency within a jurisdiction responsible for collecting, analysing, and disseminating financial information in furtherance of law enforcement investigations and prosecutions. FCMN revolutionized the international tracking of transnational criminals through data sharing by joining with several other jurisdictions. Today’s FCMN is concentrating on the operational exchange of information to help law enforcement officials investigate and prosecute transnational organized crime. The important role that FIUs play has been recognized in the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime, which recommends that every country establish an FIU.
FCMN also exercises its authority which allows for the imposition of special measures for jurisdictions, financial institutions, or international transactions of primary money laundering concern. The section allows for identifying customers using correspondent accounts, including obtaining information comparable to information obtained on domestic customers and prohibiting or imposing conditions on the opening or maintaining universally of correspondent or payable-through accounts for a foreign banking institution. actions are only used after careful consideration and research. These actions are always well founded and the consequence of egregious financial crime sometimes involving terrorist finance and transnational organized crime. As these actions has proven to have a very significant impact on targeted financial institutions.
FCMN recognizes that financial crime is a global phenomenon, transcending geographical borders. Partnerships with other nations and international bodies are essential in the detection of criminal proceeds. In the coming decades, FCMN will continue to work toward achieving greater transparency in the global financial system, combat the ever-evolving nature of transnational organized crime, and raise global awareness of AML/CFT issues.
