The Egmont Group has issued the co-chairs’ statement from its 2025 Plenary in Luxembourg, where Heads of Financial Intelligence Units (HoFIU) endorsed elevating FIU autonomy and operational independence from internal guidance to formal expectations for all members, making them part of the Egmont Group’s core requirements. The HoFIU also agreed to pursue enhancements to the Egmont Secure Web (ESW) to better identify and connect information for anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) analysis across jurisdictions, while maintaining confidentiality safeguards and access controls, and approved a new funding approach to sustain the Egmont Centre of FIU Excellence and Leadership (ECOFEL) capacity-building programme. Membership increased to 181 following the acceptance of FIUs from Mozambique, The Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, and Sierra Leone, and member FIUs signed 47 Memorandums of Understanding to expand information-sharing pathways on money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF). A Letter of Agreement with the Financial Monitoring Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan formalised collaboration under the ECOFEL Certification Program. The Plenary also gave final HoFIU endorsement to projects covering revisions to the Egmont Group Principles for Information Exchange Between FIUs, effective informal international cooperation (with the Financial Action Task Force, Interpol and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime), FIU effectiveness in asset recovery, the role of FIUs in fighting environmental crimes, and Streamlined Data Integration for FIU Questionnaires. The Plenary selected Daniel Thelesklaf, Head of FIU Germany, as Egmont Group Vice-Chair for a two-year term and filled multiple working group, regional representative and ESW Board roles with terms ending after the 2027 Egmont Plenary. HoFIU also designated 9 June as the International Day of the FIU, with annual celebrations to begin in 2026.
Egmont Group 2025-07-15
Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units makes FIU autonomy and operational independence a core membership requirement and admits four new members
The Egmont Group's 2025 Plenary in Luxembourg endorsed elevating Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) autonomy to core requirements, approved enhancements to the Egmont Secure Web for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing analysis, and adopted a new funding approach for the Egmont Centre of FIU Excellence and Leadership. Membership increased to 181 with new FIUs from Mozambique, The Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, and Sierra Leone, and Daniel Thelesklaf was selected as Vice-Chair for a two-year term.