# Financial Intelligence **Entity class:** Intelligence discipline **Domain:** Finance / law enforcement / national security **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Financial intelligence (FININT)** is the collection, evaluation, analysis, and dissemination of information about financial behavior, assets, accounts, transactions, ownership, and value transfer in order to understand actors, capabilities, relationships, and intentions. ## Where the Data Lives Financial intelligence is not one master database. Relevant records are distributed across banks, card issuers, payment networks, processors, merchants, securities firms, money-services businesses, casinos, insurers, government benefit systems, customs records, corporate registries, and digital-asset services. Some information is reported to government under the [[wiki/Bank Secrecy Act|Bank Secrecy Act]]; other records remain with private institutions until reached through a lawful request or investigative process. This distributed structure explains the power of pattern analysis. A single purchase may be innocuous. A sequence of times, places, merchants, accounts, counterparties, devices, cash movements, travel events, and shared identifiers can reveal a network or contradict an account of activity. Analytical value arises from correlation, provenance, and context—not from treating every transaction as evidence of wrongdoing. ## Counterterrorism Function Terrorist activity requires resources for travel, communications, housing, procurement, logistics, propaganda, recruitment, and operations. Consequently, financial intelligence can identify facilitators and infrastructure even when no exotic international transfer exists. Domestic card use, ordinary bank payments, cash deposits, money-service activity, trade transactions, or purchases of materials can become relevant when connected to a lawful investigation. The [[wiki/United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]] supplies the federal policy and intelligence center through [[wiki/Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence|TFI]], [[wiki/Treasury Office of Intelligence and Analysis|OIA]], [[wiki/Financial Crimes Enforcement Network|FinCEN]], and [[wiki/Office of Foreign Assets Control|OFAC]]. Investigative agencies such as [[wiki/Homeland Security Investigations|HSI]], the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the [[wiki/United States Secret Service|Secret Service]] apply separate criminal authorities. ## Sources / Provenance - [Treasury OIA — definition and use of financial intelligence](https://home.treasury.gov/about/offices/terrorism-and-financial-intelligence/oia) - [FinCEN — value of BSA data to law enforcement and counterterrorism](https://www.fincen.gov/resources/bank-secrecy-act-filing-information/what-bsa-data) ## Relationships - **Treasury center:** [[wiki/Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence|Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence]]. - **reporting substrate:** [[wiki/Bank Secrecy Act|Bank Secrecy Act]] and [[wiki/Bank Secrecy Act Suspicious Activity Report|BSA Suspicious Activity Reports]]. - **investigative application:** [[wiki/Homeland Security Investigations|Homeland Security Investigations]] and [[wiki/United States Secret Service|United States Secret Service]]. - **analytic boundary:** correlation generates leads; provenance, legal authority, and corroboration govern action.