The adviser trade body has launched a partnership to help identify and prevent financial crime.
The Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association (Pimfa) has entered into a partnership with Financial Crime Intelligence (FCI) to launch a "ground-breaking" intelligence sharing platform.
This platform, called Pimfa-AECIS, allows users to anonymously compare and match against each other’s financial crime data. Where matches arise, firms can legally go on to share intelligence directly with each other.
Richard Adler, director of strategic partnerships at Pimfa, said: "The Pimfa-AECIS system is designed for reciprocal benefit and creates a level playing field for all users while ensuring auditable control of the intelligence sharing process.
"Being able to quickly identify repeat offenders to improve prosecution rates, reduce losses and provide targeted fraud prevention advice to vulnerable clients and repeat victims is an important step forward for our profession."
In the UK, £193bn was lost to financial crime in 2017 with more than 630,000 reports to the National Crime Agency over the 18 months to December 2017
This equated to an average of £3,900 per adult with losses occurring at £6,000 a second.
Chris Anderson, FCI’s chief executive, said: "The levels of financial crime are truly staggering and are growing at an exponential rate with emerging threats on the immediate horizon.
"The Pimfa-AECIS platform is a secure, effective tool for quickly identifying current, specific threats and criminal connections.
"By comparing and matching information, a greater body of intelligence can be created by investigators leading to improved identification, prevention and prosecutions. This leads to better protection for the public and financial institutions alike."
damian.fantato@ft.com
