Canada will be the new home of a small support secretariat aimed at bolstering international efforts to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, government officials said on Friday.
The Egmont Group, an organisation of about 100 financial intelligence units from various countries, will be headquartered in Toronto, the federal finance department said. Financial intelligence units are government agencies that collect, analyse and exchange financial information to help fight money laundering and terrorism financing.
The Toronto-based secretariat will be composed of four to six support staff and researchers, said Horst Intscher, director of Canada's financial intelligence unit, known as Fintrac. The Canadian government will provide C$5 million in start-up funding over five years for the office, but eventually its budget will come from levies on member financial intelligence units, Intscher said.
Egmont Group was established in 1995. The group's members include government departments or agencies in the United States, Britain, Europe, South America and Asia, including the US Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN.
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