Financial Intelligence Unit Upgrades Suspicious Transaction Analysis With AI And Machine Learning To Combat Money Laundering

The premier Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) tracking money laundering and terrorism funding has upgraded the analysis of Suspicious Transactions Reports (STR) armed with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to achieve an efficient system of collection, processing and dissemination of financial intelligence. 

According to senior tax officials, the new tech will play a decisive role in India's fight against the menace of money laundering and terrorism financing. 

“The Financial Intelligence Network (FINnet) 2.0 would meet the new regulatory environment and challenges of changing technology landscape. The overhaul of the existing collecting and dissemination of information system was required to get real time actionable financial intelligence,” said Central Economic Intelligence Bureau official. 

The new FINnet 2.0 version would enable generation of risk scores for individuals, businesses, reports, networks and cases to be able to flag high risk cases, entities or reports for immediate action and it prioritises cases by using risk analytics. “It leverages emerging technologies for superior analytical competencies, data quality improvement, incisive compliance monitoring and cutting-edge security tools for strengthening anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism capabilities,” added the FIU official. 

The new updated version deployed has capabilities of "advanced analytics" by employing artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and a strategic analysis lab to stay abreast with the developments in anti-money laundering and emerging technologies. 

The information would be collected from information from external databases like the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Ministry of Corporate Affairs, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest (CERSAI), Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL) and National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) to generate alerts on suspicious transactions. 

The new tech uses natural language processing (NLP) and text mining tools to analyse textual inputs like 'grounds of suspicion' to provide sophistication in FIU's "analytical and data processing capacity" collected from  Income-tax department, ED, CBI, DRI and intelligence agencies like the IB, military intelligence and the NTRO. 

The inputs analysis by artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate summaries and sharing suspicious transaction reports with various law enforcement agencies based on risk profile would provide real time insights on money laundering and terror funding.