EUROSTAT
Directorate F: Social Statistics and Information Society /
Doc. ESTAT/CR/TF2008/3
Updated 31 October 2008
Money-laundering – dataavailability
Document for point 6 of the agenda
Task Force, Crime Data Availability
luxembourg, 6-7November 2008
bechbuilding, Quetelet room
Eurostat Task Force on crime data availability (money-laundering)
Background
The Eurostat Working Group met on 7 – 8 February 2008 and agreed to assist with the collection of statistical data on money-laundering and to set up a Task Force to examine the results. Accordingly, the JLS Expert sub-group provided Eurostat with a list of efficiency indicators for different stages (reporting/intelligence, investigation and judicial) in the anti money-laundering process (Annex 1, separately but in the same folder).
See the JLS Expert sub-group meeting report of 21 February 2008 on Money-Laundering Statistics (under point 4 of the agenda) for further background to the pilot data collection exercise.
Available data
Eurostat wrote to contact persons in the EU Member States, the EU Candidate countries and the EFTA/EEA countries on 9 June 2008 asking them to provide statistical data in order to calculate the indicators. Eurostat (in conjunction with DG JLS) provided links to potentially useful sources of information such as the Egmont Group, MONEYVAL and the Financial Action Task Force. Contact persons were also provided with the details of the Financial Intelligence Units in their country. Twenty-five EU Member States, all EU Candidate countries and two EFTA/EEA countries replied. Most of the were able to provide some of the data.
Contact persons had to get in touch with a number of different organisations (such as Financial Intelligence Units and Customs Offices) in order to collect the information. It took several months for some countries to establish contact with these organisations. Even then, they found it difficult to obtain some of the information in the required detail.
A summary of the responses (Annex 2, in this file) is attached. The detailed results of the data collection exercise (Annex 3.1 and 3.2, separately but in the same folder) are attached.Most countries were able to provide a detailed commentary on the statistics (Annex 3.2).Some changes were made to the orginal Excel spreadsheets sent to countries in order to accommodate the data that was provided. In particular, it was necessary to add a column for the "total" or a "sub-total" for some tables but not for others.
For the Reporting/Intelligence and the Investigation stages, nearly all of the EU Member States provided data on Suspicious Transaction Reports. At least a third of the Member States were able to provide some information for the other items.
For the Judicial stage, half of the Member States provided data on "third party" money laundering and sentences by type and length and a third for "self laundering" and confiscation procedures. For the other items, data was only available from a few Member States.
Future steps
Member of the Task Force are invited to consider the following:
1. How to impove communication and co-operation between the different agencies involved in gathering information on money-laundering.
2. How to improve on the detail and the quality of the data required to calculate the indicators required by DG JLS.
3. What recommendations to make to the Working Group in 2009.
4. Suggest a timetable for the next data collection.
Annex 2
Doc. ESTAT/CR/TF2008/3
Summary of responses:
Number of countries able to provide dataTable number / EU Member States / Other countries
REPORTING/INTELLIGENCE / Total = 27 / Total = 7
1.1 / Number of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) filed by each category of obligated entities / 23 / 5
1.2 / Number of Cash Transaction Reports (CTRs) filed by each category of obligated entities / 9 / 2
1.3 / Number of postponement orders adopted on reported transactions / 13 / 3
1.4 / Number of money laundering investigations carried out independently by law enforcement agencies (without a prior STR) / 13 / 2
1.5 / Number of declarations made in application to the EU Cash Control Regulation / 14 / 2
1.6 / Number of cash smuggling operations detected in the EU / 12 / 1
1.7 / Number of suspicious cash activities at the borders reported to the FIU (including those based on declarations and smuggling) / 12 / 3
1.8 / Number of STRs not investigated on which further analysis was made / 15 / 3
1.9 / Number of staff dedicated full time (or full time equivalent) to money laundering in the FIU / 20 / 5
INVESTIGATION
2.1 / Number of Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) investigated by law enforcement / 17 / 4
2.2 / Number of staff dedicated full time (or full time equivalent) to money laundering in law enforcement agencies / 10 / 0
2.3 / Number of files brought to prosecution: originating from STRs, CTRs and independent law enforcement investigation / 15 / 2
JUDICIAL
3.1 / Number of staff dedicated full time (or full time equivalent) to money laundering in the judiciary / 3 / 1
3.2 / Number of convictions for "third party" money laundering / 13 / 1
3.3 / Number of convictions for "self laundering" money laundering / 9 / 1
3.4 / Number of convictions for laundering proceeds of crimes committed abroad / 6 / 0
3.5 / Number of convictions for crimes other than money laundering originating from STRs / 4 / 1
3.6 / Number of sentences by type / 15 / 1
3.7 / Number of unsuspended custodial sentences by length / 13 / 1
3.8 / Number of freezing procedures (based on a court order) / 8 / 1
3.9 / Number of confiscation procedures / 12 / 1
3.10 / Number of requests received for freezing orders from another EU Member State and the value of frozen assets / 5 / 0
3.11 / Number of requests received for confiscation orders from another EU Member State and the value of confiscated assets / 7 / 0
3.12 / Amounts recovered / 9 / 0