The Financial Monitoring Unit ( ur, , abbreviated as FMU) is the

Financial Intelligence Unit Financial intelligence (FININT) is the gathering of information about the financial affairs of entities of interest, to understand their nature and capabilities, and predict their intentions. Generally the term applies in the context of law enfo ...

(FIU) of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

established under the provisions of Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 (Previously Anti-Money Laundering Ordinance, 2007). It is an independent

intelligence service An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...

department of the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provin ...

and primarily responsible for analyzing transactions, money laundering cases, building efforts against the terrorist financing, and all sorts of financial crimes within the jurisdiction of financial laws of Pakistan. Ms. Lubna Farooq Malik has been appointed the Director General of the FMU with effect from July 2020. It currently comprises two offices; a head office in Karachi and a Liaison office in Islamabad.

History

In 2007, the Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) was formed as a department of the

State Bank of Pakistan The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) ( ur, ) is the Central Bank of Pakistan. Its Constitution, as originally laid down in the State Bank of Pakistan Order 1948, remained basically unchanged until 1 January 1974, when the bank was Nationalized and ...

, which is the Central Bank of

. The FMU was headed by a Director and its reporting entities were the regulated Banking Institutions coming under the ambit of the central bank. After the approval of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010, FMU was established as an autonomous government agency under the law in order to act as the Financial Intelligence Unit of Pakistan.

Functions

The basic functions of FMU are to receive and analyze the Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs) as well as Currency Transactions Reports (CTRs) from its designated reporting entities. The FMU may disseminate the Financial Intelligence to the concerned Law Enforcement Agencies (if required) for their further necessary action in this respect. Another function of this specialized financial intelligence agency is to ensure compliance with the Pakistan's Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s recommendations on Anti-Money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing. Moreover the unit also acts as the country's face at all international forums related to Anti-

Money Laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

& Combating

Terrorism financing Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors. Most countries have implemented measures to counter terrorism financing (CTF) often as part of their money laundering la ...

. In October 2019, FMU launched its first quarterly newsletter and announced that this new initiative aims to ensure that all the stakeholders including reporting entities are updated on initiatives being undertaken both at domestic and international levels towards development of AML/CFT standards.

Directors General

Anti-Money Laundering Software (goAML)

The FMU has implemented an Anti-Money Laundering system for the automated detection of possible money laundering and terror financing that uses the banking system. The data centre was launched by the Governor of the

, the British High Commissioner, and the Representative of the

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the ...

(UNODC) at the Head Office of Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) located in Karachi.

References

External links

Financial Monitoring Unit - Official Website

Scope of Work of FMU 2007

Financial Monitoring Unit Anti-Money Laundering Software
Finance in Pakistan Pakistan federal departments and agencies Pakistani intelligence agencies 2007 establishments in Pakistan Government agencies established in 2007 Ministry of Finance (Pakistan) {{Pakistan-gov-stub