The Financial Investigation Agency (“the Agency”) is the agency within the Virgin Islands that fulfills FATF Recommendation 29, which mandates countries to establish a financial intelligence unit. The Agency is the financial intelligence unit of the Virgin Islands and therefore performs the core functions as defined by the Egmont Group.

The Agency is also the reporting authority of the Virgin Islands and, as such, receives all suspicious activity reports (“SARs”)/suspicious transaction reports (“STRs”) pertaining to ML/TF/PF. Further, within the Agency, there is a department entitled the Financial Intelligence Unit (“the FIU”), which is responsible for conducting the analysis of SARs/STRs, intelligence-gathering and proposing disseminations to relevant agencies, including the Financial Crimes Unit of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force as well as foreign FIUs. The FIU also processes Mutual Legal Assistance Requests when so requested by the Attorney General.