The volume of transactions associated with Estonia in recent years was nearly 63 million euros. Both the transaction volume and the number of foreign inquiries have decreased regarding there are no more inquiries related to the ABLV bank criminal case in Latvia and several other major cases from previous years. Additionally, the number of inquiries from certain countries related to fraud has decreased, indicating a shift towards direct communication with payment service providers that have correspondent relationships with Estonian credit institutions. The volume of foreign inquiries was also affected by the decision of the Estonian FIU to completely terminate its relations with the financial intelligence units of Russia and Belarus.
The authorities of Malta, Latvia, and Germany sent the most inquiries and spontaneous information disclosures to the FIU in 2022. The number of spontaneous information disclosures received from the United States also increased. The inquiries are dominated by the movement of assets of criminal origin to foreign payment service providers' accounts in Estonian credit institutions, and Estonian legal persons' accounts in foreign countries. Many foreign inquiries were related to cases of fraud, where both the perpetrators and the victims are located abroad.
"Foreign inquiries show that Estonia is primarily used to obscure the tracks of funds emerged abroad associated with suspicion of criminal activity," said Toomas Plaado, Deputy Head of the FIU. "The movement of criminal money through accounts of clients of Estonian banks has decreased, except for correspondent services, where Estonian credit institutions' customers are foreign payment service providers," explained Plaado.
In 2022, the Estonian FIU received 348 inquiries and 214 spontaneous information disclosures from 52 countries, including all European Union member states.
