The Financial Action Task Force published a report calling for expanded information sharing between governments, banks, virtual asset service providers and private-sector firms, stating that traditional anti-money laundering systems struggle with sophisticated cross-border financial crime. The report, titled 'Information Sharing to Combat Illicit Finance: Global Overview of Public and Private Sector Partnerships and Data Protection Arrangements,' identifies at least 84 active public-private partnerships across 51 jurisdictions. The recommendation reflects a shift from treating banks as reporting entities toward making financial institutions active intelligence partners sharing risk indicators and operational intelligence with authorities.
Digital Finance Speed Challenges Traditional AML Systems
According to the FATF, the speed of digital finance has fundamentally changed how illicit money moves across borders. Instant payments, virtual assets, online fraud and 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. 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 Public-Private Partnerships Operate Across 51 Jurisdictions
The FATF identified at least 84 public-private partnerships currently operating worldwide. 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. 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. 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.
Fraud Drives Expanded Cooperation Beyond Traditional Financial Institutions
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. 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."
Singapore Project FRONTIER+ Produces 2,100 Arrests and S$28.2 Million Seizure
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 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.
FATF Emphasizes Privacy Protections Within Information-Sharing Frameworks
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.
Report Signals Shift From Compliance Reporting to Intelligence Contribution
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. For crypto firms in particular, the report reinforces the FATF's 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.
FAQ
What did the FATF report recommend for combating financial crime?
The FATF published a report calling for expanded information sharing between governments, banks, virtual asset service providers and private-sector firms. The report, titled 'Information Sharing to Combat Illicit Finance: Global Overview of Public and Private Sector Partnerships and Data Protection Arrangements,' identifies at least 84 active public-private partnerships across 51 jurisdictions and recommends countries expand similar initiatives as criminals exploit digital payments and complex international financial networks.
What results did Singapore's Project FRONTIER+ achieve?
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, according to the FATF report.
How many public-private partnerships did the FATF identify?
The FATF identified at least 84 public-private partnerships currently operating across 51 jurisdictions. Among 58 jurisdictions surveyed, 52 reported operating at least one domestic partnership, while 18 said they had established multiple initiatives. Approximately 58% of these arrangements operate under formal governance structures supported by legislation, memoranda of understanding or secure communication platforms.
