FIA was created in 2014 to support local, and international law enforcement by analyzing the information required under the AMLA (Amended 2013) one of the nation's most important tools in the fight against money laundering. The AMLA recordkeeping and reporting requirements establish a financial trail for investigators to follow as they track criminals, their activities, and their assets. Over the years, FIA staff has developed its expertise in adding value to the information collected under the AMLA by uncovering leads and exposing unknown pieces of information contained in the complexities of money laundering schemes.

Dirty money can take many routes-some complex, some simple, but all increasingly inventive-the ultimate goal being to disguise its source. The money can move through banks, Forex Bureaus, money transmitters like Mobile Money, businesses, casinos, and even be sent overseas to become clean, laundered money. The tools of the money launderer can range from complicated financial transactions, carried out through webs of wire transfers and networks of shell companies, to old-fashioned currency smuggling.

FIA researches and analyzes this information and other critical forms of intelligence to support financial criminal investigations. Safeguarding the privacy of the data it collects is an overriding responsibility of the Authority and its employees-a responsibility that strongly imprints all of its data management functions, and indeed, all that the Authority does.

FIA provides a process designed to facilitate information sharing between agencies with shared investigative interests.