FIUs in the European Union - facts and figures, functions and facilities

In this chapter it is investigated several hypotheses surrounding FIUs that are put forward by the economic and institutional literature as well as by anecdotal evidence gathered from AML specialists. First of all, what types of FIUs are there in the EU and how are they spread? Second, are all FIUs equally financially independent, and, if not, what are the financing structures put in place across Europe? Why do administrative FIUs have more staff and budget? Third, do all FIUs perform the same tasks, and, if not, why are some FIUs assigned more tasks? Are resources proportional to the number of additional tasks? Fourth, what type of feedback do FIUs give to their reporting entities? Is geography a barrier in providing feedback? Fifth, which databases do FIUs have access to, and in what way? What are the most common ways for FIUs to overcome the lack of access to a certain database? Finally, what type of IT platforms for data management and filtering are put in place across the EU-FIUs? Do reporting entities report more manually in countries with a low IT intensity?