€9.5 billion in suspicious transactions reported in NL last year

Suspicious transactions reported in the Netherlands last year broke records in both number of reports and the amount involved. A total of 57,950 suspicious transactions were reported, involving an amount of 9.5 billion euros, according to figures released by the Netherlands' Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an independent investigative agency of the National Police, NU.nl reports.

The FIU also received 750 thousand reports of unusual transactions. This high number can largely be attributed to an amendment to the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, which made it mandatory to report transactions to and from high-risk countries. Without those reports, the number of unusual transactions reported last year was 394,743 - still higher than in 2017, but not so significantly.

The FIU transferred a total of 8,514 files with suspicious transactions to security and investigation services last year. Investigation into these files led to suspicions of money laundering, terrorist financing or other forms of crime.

The Netherlands' Financial Intelligence Unit was established in 1994. It is part of an international partnership now involving 164 FIUs. Many of the reports of suspicious transactions the FIU received are not limited to one country, according to the newspaper.