The Financial Action Task Force has called for much closer information sharing between governments, banks, virtual asset service providers and other private-sector firms, arguing that traditional anti-money laundering systems are struggling to keep pace with increasingly sophisticated cross-border financial crime.
In a new report, Information Sharing to Combat Illicit Finance: Global Overview of Public and Private Sector Partnerships and Data Protection Arrangements, the global AML standard setter says public-private partnerships have become one of the most effective tools for detecting and disrupting money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud. The report identifies at least 84 active public-private partnerships across 51 jurisdictions and urges countries to expand similar initiatives as criminals exploit digital payments, instant transfers and increasingly complex international financial networks. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
The recommendation reflects a broader shift in financial crime prevention. Rather than treating banks as reporting entities that simply submit suspicious transaction reports, regulators increasingly want financial institutions to become active intelligence partners capable of sharing risk indicators, emerging typologies and operational intelligence with both authorities and one another.
Financial Crime Is Moving Faster Than Traditional AML Systems
According to the FATF, the speed of digital finance has fundamentally changed the way illicit money moves across borders.
Instant payments, virtual assets, online fraud and increasingly sophisticated criminal networks allow illicit funds to move through multiple jurisdictions before authorities can react. Traditional anti-money laundering systems, built around retrospective reporting and individual investigations, often struggle to identify broader criminal networks in time.
The report argues that public-private partnerships allow authorities and financial institutions to move from a reactive compliance model toward a collaborative intelligence model by sharing information on emerging threats, suspicious behaviour and operational trends before criminal activity spreads further. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}
Unlike conventional reporting frameworks, many partnerships operate through secure encrypted platforms that allow financial intelligence units, law enforcement agencies and regulated firms to exchange information in near real time.
84 Partnerships Already Operate Worldwide
The FATF identified at least 84 public-private partnerships currently operating around the world.
Among 58 jurisdictions surveyed, 52 reported operating at least one domestic partnership, while 18 said they had established multiple initiatives.
The report found that approximately 58% of these arrangements operate under formal governance structures supported by legislation, memoranda of understanding or secure communication platforms. The remaining 42% rely on more flexible arrangements, including analyst-to-analyst collaboration, secure messaging channels, working groups and industry roundtables. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}
Most partnerships are led by financial intelligence units, which account for roughly 63% of initiatives, while others are coordinated by multi-agency task forces or law enforcement authorities.
The information exchanged also varies according to operational maturity.
More than three-quarters of reporting jurisdictions primarily share strategic intelligence, including fraud typologies, red flags and emerging risk patterns. Between 55% and 66% also exchange operational intelligence such as suspicious transaction indicators, customer due diligence information and case-specific investigative data. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}
Fraud Is Driving A New Wave Of Cooperation
One of the report’s strongest themes is the rapid growth of fraud.
The FATF argues that financial institutions can no longer combat fraud effectively in isolation because criminal organizations increasingly operate across multiple banks, payment providers, crypto platforms, telecommunications companies and digital marketplaces.
To respond, the report recommends expanding information sharing beyond traditional financial institutions to include virtual asset service providers, telecom operators, online platforms and other non-traditional participants that increasingly observe different parts of the criminal ecosystem. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}
FATF President Giles Thomson said:
“Public-private partnerships are helping to achieve results that would not otherwise be possible with information on financial crime in fragmented siloes across public and private sectors. I encourage countries to use public-private partnerships to build the trust, collaboration, and high-speed channels for information sharing needed to counter increasingly sophisticated criminal methods. This is essential to effectively disrupt and prevent illicit finance, especially the fast growing threat from fraud.”
Real-World Results Go Beyond Suspicious Transaction Reports
The report includes several examples where structured information sharing produced measurable enforcement outcomes.
Singapore’s Project FRONTIER+, a multinational anti-scam initiative involving 13 jurisdictions, led to more than 2,100 arrests, the freezing of over 36,000 bank accounts and the seizure of approximately S$28.2 million.
In South Africa, cooperation between banks and authorities helped dismantle a pyramid scheme after participating institutions analysed suspicious customer activity, resulting in the freezing of 60 bank accounts containing more than US$450,000.
Additional case studies describe successful bank-to-bank intelligence sharing in the United Kingdom that uncovered an underground banking network moving more than £10 million, as well as coordinated investigations involving human trafficking in Latvia and terrorist financing detection in Indonesia. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}
Privacy Remains A Central Challenge
Despite advocating broader information sharing, the FATF emphasizes that stronger cooperation cannot come at the expense of privacy or fundamental rights.
The report stresses that public-private partnerships should operate within clear legal frameworks governing necessity, proportionality, transparency, purpose limitation, data retention and access controls.
It also recommends closer cooperation between AML authorities and national data protection regulators to ensure information-sharing arrangements comply with domestic privacy laws while remaining operationally effective.
According to the FATF, successful partnerships increasingly benefit from proactive engagement with privacy authorities rather than treating data protection as an obstacle to financial crime investigations. :contentReference[oaicite:6]{index=6}
What It Means For Banks And Crypto Firms
For banks, brokers, payment providers and virtual asset service providers, the report signals that regulators increasingly expect institutions to contribute intelligence rather than simply satisfy reporting obligations.
As financial crime becomes more organised and technologically sophisticated, the ability to identify suspicious behaviour will increasingly depend on connecting information held across multiple institutions rather than analysing transactions in isolation.
That shift could reshape how compliance teams operate over the coming years, placing greater emphasis on collaborative intelligence, secure information-sharing platforms and cross-sector partnerships.
For crypto firms in particular, the report reinforces the FATF’s long-standing position that virtual asset service providers should become fully integrated into global anti-money laundering information-sharing frameworks as digital assets become increasingly embedded within the wider financial system.
Rather than viewing public-private partnerships as optional enhancements, the FATF now presents them as a critical component of modern financial crime prevention, arguing that keeping pace with increasingly sophisticated criminal networks will require governments and the private sector to exchange intelligence at the same speed that illicit funds move through the global financial system.