Hong Kong

The Joint Financial Intelligence Unit (JFIU) is the specific national financial intelligence center of Hong Kong, which functions as a partnership between staff of the Hong Kong Police Force and the Customs and Excise Department. Located at Police Headquarters in Wanchai, it is managed under the Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB) as the leading gatekeeper for the jurisdiction to counter illegal capital movements. In addition to not being a field investigation unit, the JFIU is an intelligence processing facility only. As a connector between the reporting private sector and prosecution authorities, it remains a full member of the international Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

The Joint Financial Intelligence Unit handles the suspicious transaction reporting framework in Hong Kong through the acquisition, analysis, and safekeeping of STRs provided by financial institutions and designated non-financial professions. Through the use of the state-of-the-art, entirely electronic STREAMS 2 system, the JFIU transforms large amounts of corporate filing alerts into structured packages of financial intelligence. In cases where the transactions show elements of illegal integration, layering, or placement, the agency distributes the information to local or foreign FIUs and law enforcement agencies to conduct investigations and recover assets. Besides that, the JFIU fights financial crimes actively by providing localized typologies of trends, holding compliance sessions, and monitoring technical threats.