The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority has published an update telling supervised entities to treat terrorist financing as a distinct risk management and compliance framework alongside anti-money laundering, rather than relying mainly on money laundering indicators. It highlighted that, according to the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service, terrorism is also financed from Finland to other countries, and said the financial sector has a key role in detecting and preventing such activity early. The authority noted that terrorist financing risk often turns on the intended use and recipient of funds, not their origin. Supervised entities must identify terrorist financing risks in their own risk assessments and reflect those risks in products, customer relationships, distribution channels and geographical connections. Risk management measures should be calibrated to the level of risk and updated as the risk environment changes, including through geopolitical conflicts and new payment methods. The update also stresses that terrorist financing can be linked to legitimate activity and to small, apparently ordinary transactions, and that firms must consider links to international sanctions and related humanitarian exemptions.
Finanssivalvonta2026-07-14
Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority updates supervised entities on terrorist financing risk identification, stresses separate assessment from anti money laundering
The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority has updated supervised entities on identifying terrorist financing risks and said this must be assessed separately from anti-money laundering risk. Firms must incorporate those risks into their own assessments, products, customer relationships, channels and geographic exposure, while taking account of sanctions links and humanitarian exemptions.