FIU-IND

Every reporting entity in India files its cash, cross-border and suspicious transaction reports into one place. That place is the Financial Intelligence Unit – India.

It was set up by the Government of India by an Office Memorandum dated 18 November 2004 as the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions, and for coordinating national and international intelligence, investigation and enforcement efforts against money laundering and terrorist financing.

It is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC), which is headed by the Finance Minister — not to RBI, not to SEBI, and not to the Directorate of Enforcement.

FIU-IND has six stated functions, and the reports it collects are the whole first one:

1. Collection — the central reception point for Cash Transaction Reports (CTRs), Non-Profit Organisation Transaction Reports (NTRs), Cross Border Wire Transfer Reports (CBWTRs), Reports on Purchase or Sale of Immovable Property (IPRs) and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs).
2. Analysis — to uncover patterns suggesting money laundering.
3. Sharing — with national intelligence and law enforcement agencies, regulators, and foreign Financial Intelligence Units.
4. Central repository — a national database built from those reports.
5. Coordination — national, regional and global.
6. Research and analysis — trends and typologies.

It is also a penalising authority. Under Section 13 of the PMLA the Director, FIU-IND can issue directions under 13(2)(a) and 13(2)(b) and impose a monetary penalty under Section 13(2)(d). Section 13 powers and the Director (Enforcement)'s powers are described in the Act as exclusive and concurrent.

For IFSCA-licensed units, all filing runs through the FINGate 2.0 portal — the front-end web portal of FINNET 2.0 — and non-registration is itself treated as non-compliance with the IFSCA Guidelines. Reports go to the Director, FIU-IND at the 6th Floor, Tower-2, Jeevan Bharati Building, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001.

Three FIU-IND orders in the workbook, three different failures and three very different price tags:

The arithmetic behind Paytm is worth pausing on. Rule 8(4) says that delay of each day in not reporting a transaction, or in rectifying a mis-reported one, beyond the time limit constitutes a separate violation. An STR is due within seven working days of concluding that a transaction is suspicious. Thirty-four accounts, each late by weeks, is not one failure — it is a multiplication table, and that is how a reporting lapse becomes five and a half crore rupees.

Chapter 1 (section 1.4.4) and Chapter 2 (section 2.3.2) both set out FIU-IND's origin date, its reporting line to the Economic Intelligence Council and its six functions — the Chapter 1 sample question asks which organisation receives and analyses cash and suspicious transaction reports. Chapter 7 is nothing but FIU-IND and IFSCA orders. Expect recall on the 2004 date, on the EIC reporting line, and on which report types FIU-IND receives.

• FIU-IND reports to the Economic Intelligence Council, headed by the Finance Minister — it is not a wing of RBI, SEBI or the Directorate of Enforcement.
• FIU-IND analyses and penalises; the Directorate of Enforcement investigates and prosecutes. Both draw powers from the PMLA, described as exclusive and concurrent.
• It receives five report types, not just STRs — CTRs, NTRs, CBWTRs, IPRs and STRs.
• Each day of delay is a separate violation under Rule 8(4). This is the single most expensive sentence in the Rules.
• Registration is separate from reporting. Bybit's penalty was for never enrolling on FINGate 2.0.
• The unit is FIU-IND — India's FIU. FATF Recommendation 29 requires every country to have one; they are not one global body.