Mission – Financial Intelligence Agency

The Financial Intelligence Agency (AIF) functions as the General Director under the Minister responsible for Finance and exercises the functions of the responsible authority in accordance with law no. 9917/2008 “On the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism” as amended.

Our mission is to protect the country’s interests from financial crime and terrorist financing and to contribute to the stability, integrity, growth and sustainability of the financial system in Albania and the economy in general, through the detection and suppression of criminal activities through our regulatory programs. and financial intelligence.

Pursuant to this law, the Financial Intelligence Agency is an administrative unit which, within the scope of its activity, has the right to deal with issues related to possible money laundering and the financing of possible terrorist activities.

The functions and duties of the Financial Intelligence Agency are defined in article 22 “Duties and functions of the responsible authority” law no. 9917/2008 “On the prevention of money laundering and financing of terrorism” as amended, where, among other things, it is determined as follows:

The Financial Intelligence Agency, as a financial intelligence unit pursuant to this law, has the following duties and functions:

collects, administers, processes, analyzes and distributes to the competent authorities, reports and information on money laundering and terrorist financing issues;
has direct access free of charge to information technology systems or databases and to any information administered by public institutions or by private entities owned by the state or given by the state in favor of private entities on the basis of a contract, such as and in any kind of public register;
supervises the compliance of the entities’ activity with the requirements of legal and by-laws for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, including on-site and remote inspections, alone or in cooperation with supervisory authorities;
share information with any foreign counterpart agency, subject to similar confidentiality obligations. The information provided should be used only for the purposes of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing. Information may be shared only with the prior consent of the parties;
exchange information with the prosecutions of the general jurisdiction, the Special Prosecutor’s Office, the State Police, the National Bureau of Investigation, the State Information Service and other competent law enforcement or intelligence authorities, on the issues of cleaning the products of the criminal offense, the offenses criminal or criminal activities that generate products of criminal offences, terrorist financing, and may sign bilateral or multilateral cooperation agreements with them;
keeps complete statistics and reports on the criminal proceedings registered for the criminal offenses of laundering the proceeds of criminal offenses or criminal activity and the financing of terrorism, as well as on the manner of their conclusion;
mainly, on the basis of a decision of the Council of Ministers, or for the cases requested by the Special Financial Action Group, other international organizations, from which obligations arise for the Republic of Albania, issue a list of countries for restriction and/or control of the transactions or business relations of the entities, proportionally to the identified risks, these decisions are mandatory for implementation by the entities and state authorities that have obligations under this law;
orders, when there are reasons based on concrete facts and circumstances for money laundering and terrorist financing, the blocking or temporary freezing of the transaction or financial action, for a period not exceeding 72 hours. Within this period, if it notices elements of a criminal offense, the responsible authority sends information to the prosecutor’s office, also submitting a copy of the order for the temporary suspension of the transaction, or for freezing the account, according to this provision, as well as all relevant documentation;
keeps and administers all data and other legal documentation for 10 years from the date of receipt of the information;
organizes and participates, together with public and private institutions, in training activities for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, as well as organizes or participates in programs to increase public awareness;
notifies the relevant supervisory authority, when it notices that a subject does not fulfill the obligations defined in this law;
publishes within the first quarter of each year, the annual public report for the preceding year on the activity of the responsible authority. The report must also include detailed statistics on the origin of the reports received and the results of the cases submitted to the prosecutor’s office;
orders, when there are well-founded reasons for money laundering and terrorist financing, the monitoring, during a certain period, of banking operations that are being carried out through one or more designated accounts;
periodically reviews the effectiveness and efficiency of the domestic system for combating money laundering and terrorist financing through statistics, risk assessment and other available information;
exercise any other duty assigned to him by law.