Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, has announced that it will expand its intelligence partnership, Fintel Alliance, after it has proved essential in fighting financial crime.

Fintel recently launched a campaign on scambling – described as a practice where unlicensed online gambling platforms advertise on social media and trick people to visit a scam website to participate in gambling.

Fintel Alliance member and NAB Chief Financial Crime Risk Officer, Paul Jevtovic, detailed: “The nature of scambling – frequent small transactions – means it isn’t traditionally captured by mandatory reporting.

“However, combining data from multiple sources about cash transactions less than $10,000 allowed Fintel Alliance to more rapidly understand the nature and extent of criminality, resulting in timely dissemination amongst members.

“I’ve seen this partnership and capability evolve since 2017, and its expansion is a modern approach not only to intelligence gathering, but more responsive regulation.”

Over the past few years, there has been an increase in suspicious financial activity in the Australian betting market.

Bradley Brown, AUSTRAC Manager of Regulatory Operations, explained: “There are many legitimate people who seek to gamble, and we are not necessarily against the gambling sector; it’s more about managing the risk when it does occur.”

Meanwhile, Brendan Thomas, AUSTRAC CEO, said the Intelligence Division’s Fintel Alliance has been so productive that the agency will make its collaborative data analytics hub a ‘central function’ from now on.

In detail, the move has generated real intelligence across a range of serious crimes including money laundering, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, tax evasion, fraud, and illegal phoenixing.

“For example, late last year we worked with our partners using the collaborative data analytics hub,” added Thomas. “We obtained all cash deposit transaction data under $10,000 from the four largest banks and jointly looked for criminal patterns. We had more than 50 million data points.”

The organisation went on to explain that the nature of scambling is frequent small transactions, which means it isn’t traditionally captured by mandatory reporting.

However, combining data from multiple sources about cash transactions less than $10,000 allowed the intelligence unit to understand the nature and extent of criminality quickly.

Fintel Alliance Executive Board Co-Chair and ANZ Group Head of Financial Crime Risk, Cassandra Hewett, noted: “The breadth of industry involvement reflects the value the financial industry sees from the public-private partnership.”

She highlighted that criminals are adept at finding weak points, adding: “By working together to develop and use new tools, technologies and fresh approaches to combat crime, we can strengthen the ecosystem we all operate in.”

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