Hong Kong police to boost computing power for new anti-money-laundering squad to help screen surge in suspicious financial transactions
- Reports of suspicious transactions, including those with suspected links to money laundering or terrorist financing, rose 10.7 per cent to 57,130 last year
- Police’s new financial intelligence and investigation bureau hopes technology such as big data analytics system will help with suspicious-transaction reports and save manpower and time
Hong Kong police plan to upgrade the computer system for their new anti-money-laundering squad to speed up the screening of a huge number of suspicious financial activities, which surged 10 per cent last year to more than 57,000 reports.
Chief Superintendent Lam Man-han, head of the new financial intelligence and investigation bureau, said officers currently had to analyse each suspicious transaction report manually.
Lam said she hoped new technology such as a big data analytics system would help examine the reports and save manpower and time.
Police will request funding for the upgrade at a Legislative Council Finance Committee meeting next month. However, Lam refused to reveal how much money was needed.
According to official figures, reports of suspicious transactions, including those with suspected links to money laundering or terrorist financing, rose 10.7 per cent to 57,130 in 2020 from 51,588 the year before. More than 24,500 such transactions were reported in the first five months of this year.