“Irregular large cash withdrawals”, including the frequent use of ATMs and CDMs, formed the most prolific type of Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) in Macau in 2022, with almost 600 instances detected according to the Financial Intelligence Office (GIF).
Details of the city’s STRs formed part of the agency’s 2022 Annual Report, published this week, which outlined the primary sources of such STRs during the previous year. While GIF previously revealed that a total of 2,199 STRs were submitted in 2022, down 9.7% year-on-year due to subdued visitor activity from the COVID-19 pandemic, the gaming sector was still the most prolific sector with 1,177 reports submitted (ahead of the financial sector with 765).
Aside from “Irregular large cash withdrawals”, other common typologies in 2022 were “Significant cash deposit with non-verifiable source of funds”, “Use of ATM, phone banking, cash deposit machine”, “Use of cheques/promissory notes/account transfer to transfer funds”, “Gambling activities (casinos, horse racing, internet gambling etc)” and “Chips conversion with minimal gambling activities”.
GIF noted that “Gambling activities (casinos, horse racing, internet gambling etc)” had increased significantly because of more frequent irregular gaming activities in casinos.
It also revealed that, while the total number of STRs declined in 2022, the number of STRs referred by GIF to the Public Prosecutions Office showed a significant increase. This, the agency explained, was due to greater deployment of resources by reporting entities in detecting suspicious transactions and improvements in internal collaboration between law enforcement agencies.
GIF said it has been looking to enhance the effectiveness of tracing criminal funds and combating money laundering, and to strengthen measures to prevent criminals from committing money laundering and terrorist financing crimes.
“GIF also improved the intelligence exchange and cooperation with law enforcement agencies, improved the quality of intelligence and enriched analysis as well as increasing the quantity and effectiveness of cases referred to the Public Prosecutions Office,” it said.
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