United Nations Partnership with Financial Intelligence Unit Germany Highlights Innovative Software Tools Used to Combat Organized Crime

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, 27 September (Office of Information and Communications Technology) — The United Nations announced today that the Office of Information and Communications Technology supported Germany on the set‑up of the new Financial Intelligence Unit under the Central Customs Authority in Cologne, dedicated for receiving, collecting and evaluating reports of suspicious financial transactions that might be related to money‑laundering or terrorist financing.

Supported by the Office of Information and Communications Technology Enterprise Applications Centre Vienna under the mandates of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the goPortfolio suite are innovative information and communications technology (ICT) tools designed to help Member States strengthen their capacity to fight organized crime.

“The Office of Information and Communications Technology doesn’t just create business applications that ensure the United Nations runs smoothly on a day-to-day basis,” said Atefeh Riazi, United Nations Assistant Secretary‑General and Chief Information Technology Officer.  “We are also offering applications that have the potential to support the fight against [the] funding of global terrorism and interrupt the supply of money that goes to finance organized crime.”

Two specific software products of the goPortfolio suite — goAML (anti‑money‑laundering) and goINTEL (intelligence‑sharing platform) — are used in tandem to support analysis in their tactical and strategic analyses.  Uncommon banking practices, such as depositing, withdrawing or exchanging of extremely large sums of money through the financial institution, can trigger detailed data analysis and investigations in goAML if links to syndicated crime or terrorist organizations are uncovered during closer scrutiny.  The software tools are designed to help the German Financial Intelligence Unit to quickly collect, analyse and disseminate financial intelligence that may uncover criminal activities.

Financial crimes, including tax crimes, threaten the strategic, political and economic interests of all countries and undermine confidence in the global financial system.  In a world of limited resources and increasing complexity, Government authorities must work closely together to better address these challenges through the use of information technology.  goINTEL is a data‑sharing tool that facilitates cooperation between the authorities combating serious financial crimes such as tax crimes, bribery, corruption, money‑laundering and terrorism financing.  goINTEL interfaces with goAML and national operational and intelligence databases at the state and federal levels to enrich strategic analyses.  The European Police Office is working with the Office of Information and Communications Technology Enterprise Applications Centre in Vienna to use goINTEL as a data interface for FIU.net for cross-border reporting and data dissemination.

Andreas Bardong, Head of Financial Intelligence Unit Germany, said: "I firmly believe in goAML and goINTEL as essential standard information technology platforms in the common fight against money‑laundering and terrorist financing and in finding strategic responses to financial crime.”

Marko Stolle, Project Coordinator and Deputy Head of Financial Intelligence Unit Germany added: “goAML and goINTEL are the essential software solutions for Financial Intelligence Unit Germany, not only due to its workflow management system for suspicious transaction reports and other types of information, but also as the central interface with target systems, databanks and other sources of intelligence.  We are looking forward to continuing the successful cooperation with the United Nations in the future.”

To learn more about Financial Intelligence Unit Germany’s centre in Cologne, please visit www.zoll.de/DE/Der-Zoll/FIU/fiu_node.html.  For more information about the United Nations goPortfolio suite, please contact the Software Products for Member States section of the Enterprise Applications Centre in Vienna at email:  rpu@un.org.

For additional information, please contact Alain Nkoyock at email:  alain.nkoyock@un.org, or tel.:  +43 1 26060 5979.

Originally published on United Nations Meetings Coverage and Press Releases