ARGENTINA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Aranzazú Sesma Lasierra, Roberto Durrieu and Tomás Guido, Estudio Durrieu
Estudio Durrieu Suipacha 1380, 5th Floor, Autonomous
City of Buenos Aires Argentina C1011ACD Tel: +54 11 3984 0000 Fax: +54 11 3984 0000 Email: durrieu@durrieu-lex.com Web: www.durrieu-lex.com
The Role of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in Argentina In the late 20th century, as the fight against money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (TF) inten - sified, states recognised the need for a specialised authority to bridge the private sector and judicial bod - ies. This led to the creation of Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), whose central task is to receive and ana - lyse reports of suspicious operations related to ML, TF, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruc - tion (PWMD), subsequently forwarding them to the competent judicial authorities. While each country structures its FIU differently ‒ ranging from administra - tive and law-enforcement models to judicial or hybrid types ‒ these agencies share the distinctive feature of co-operating with both domestic institutions and international counterparts. Originally established in the early 1990s, FIUs were consolidated as a global standard when the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) incorporated explicit recommendations on their func - tioning in 2003. Since then, their role in the preven - tion and prosecution of financial crime has steadily expanded and strengthened. In 2000, Law No 25.246 created Argentina’s Unidad de Información Financiera (Financial Intelligence Unit, UIF). This autonomous and self-sufficient body is directly accountable to the National Congress and falls under the authority of the Ministry of Justice. It is in charge of the analysis, processing and transmission of information aimed at preventing and combating ML, TF and PWMD.
The UIF divides its tasks into three main areas. The first is prevention; it regulates the obligated entities and ensures their compliance with Law No 25.246. It can also impose fines or other punitive measures. The second area is financial intelligence, which consists of receiving information from reporting entities, such as banks, and analysing suspicious transactions to decide whether they should be reported to the Min - istry of Justice. Lastly, until recently, the UIF had the authority to investigate and possibly prosecute enti - ties, acting as a plaintiff ( querellante ) in court proceed - ings alongside the prosecutor. Argentina’s UIF is similar in structure to those in most other countries, except for the UIF’s previous ability to act as a plaintiff. This was noted in the last 2024 FATF Mutual Evaluation of Argentina, in which the FATF raised concerns about the independence of the UIF in three different areas: the staff turnover, the use of querellante in certain corruption-related cases and the role of the Advisory Board. As mentioned previously, the UIF is directly account - able to the National Congress. This means that the National Executive Power oversees the nominating and removal of the Head and Deputy Head of the UIF. The remaining UIF staff are also public servants, and their recruitment and dismissal are governed by public processes and established rules applicable to all public servants. Although the processes used for appointing and dismissing staff are quite complex and do not occur frequently, the FATF noted an important and systematic turnover of FIU staff each time the Executive Power changed.
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