Money laundering experts at INTERPOL routinely deliver training and informational presentations at multi-lateral meetings and conferences throughout the world. Specialised officers at INTERPOL review thousands of messages sent from member countries each year, routinely notifying investigators of previously unknown links between investigations in other countries. In the most significant and complex cases, the General Secretariat in Lyon will serve as a clearinghouse for information and co-ordinate joint task force meetings.

INTERPOL fully supports the Egmont Group’s statement that the key issue in anti-money laundering efforts is to ensure that critical pieces of information reach the investigators and prosecutors charged with arresting criminals and recovering illegal funds. INTERPOL’s Anti-Money Laundering Unit is dedicated to increasing the flow of money laundering information among financial investigators by forging alliances with financial intelligence units and financial crime units around the world.

The primary vehicle for this is I-24/7, INTERPOL’s global police communications system. Using this system, investigators anywhere in the world can search and cross-check data in a matter of seconds, with direct and immediate access to databases containing critical information on notices, stolen motor vehicles, lost or stolen travel and identity documents, stolen works of art, payment cards, fingerprints, known or suspected terrorists, DNA profiles, etc.). These multiple resources provide access to potentially important pieces of information, thereby facilitating all types of criminal investigations. With the addition of money laundering data, investigators will have one resource for both financial and police information.

Finally, INTERPOL’s Anti-Money Laundering Unit, in co-operation with Europol’s Financial Crime Unit, is committed to improving the effectiveness of practical co-operation between its partners in the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing by identifying national liaison officers throughout the world to act as points of contact for the Camden Assets Recovery Inter-Agency Network (CARIN). CARIN, originally an initiative within the European Union, is an informal international network for tracing, freezing, seizing and confiscating the proceeds from criminal activities.