Case Study | Isle of Man FIU
Background
The Isle of Man Financial Intelligence Unit (IOM FIU) acts as the Island’s centre for the receipt and analysis of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs). SARs are raised by MLROs operating across the Island’s regulated industries relating to Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing. The IOM FIU identifies and promotes the legislative and policy changes required to ensure that the Island’s laws prevent the Isle of Man from being used for national and cross border financial crime and terrorism financing.
The IOM FIU required a solution to replace their historic paper-based system which saw confidential files shared across several government departments for review and comment. Due to an upcoming MONEYVAL inspection, the IOM FIU approached PDMS about the THEMIS platform.
Project
THEMIS is PDMS’s back-office solution that provides financial intelligence units with the functionality to record, manage, analyse and report on financial intelligence. A separate portal allows MLROs to submit suspicious transaction reports online directly to the FIUs. THEMIS complies with the rules of the Egmont Group, who are a body of 164 financial intelligence units who share combined expertise to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
The project saw the IOM FIU’s instance of THEMIS delivered on time and on budget before an impending MONEYVAL inspection.
Results
From the initial project kick-off meeting, THEMIS was delivered to the IOM FIU for User Acceptance Testing (UAT) in four months.
As a result of implementing the THEMIS system, the IOM FIU now uses one digital system that is used to record all SARs and allows for the team to prioritise workload in order of importance. MLROs for Isle of Man companies can also submit any suspicious activities online as soon as they notice anything unusual, 24/7/365 days a year.
THEMIS has allowed the IOM FIU to provide detailed reports for suspected cases in internationally recognised formats, including for the Egmont group.
Following the IOM FIU using THEMIS, the results have been:
- Over 5,000 SARS submitted since April 2016
- SARS reports presented in a standardised format
- Assisted with the IOM FIU office becoming paperless
- MLROs in across the Isle of Man using THEMIS to report any SARS
The future
- The team at PDMS monitor MONEYVAL and Egmont Group reporting standards and make any updates to THEMIS to bring them in line with industry standards
- ‘Sanctions reporting’ is in the process of being developed. This new addition will allow UK sanctioned individuals to be linked to the UK Sanctions Database
- Annual user groups are held for users of PDMS’ THEMIS software, which sees MLROs from across the globe come together to discuss the platform and agree on common features and improvements to the system
Contact a member of the team to learn more about THEMIS