The Bulgarian Financial Intelligence Unit, officially called Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA), was established in 1998 by the Law on Measures against Money Laundering (LMML). It is an independent administrative body responsible to the Minister of Finance with own budget. It is located in Sofia.
The Agency receives, stores, examines, analyses and discloses to the law enforcement bodies information related to suspicions of money laundering or terrorist financing activities. This is predominantly information of financial nature. The Agency is authorized by the law to request from reporting entities any additional to the STRs information. It is authorized to exchange financial intelligence with foreign FIUs without restrictions and to request information from other Bulgarian authorities and reporting entities on their behalf. The Agency also performs on-site inspections of reporting entities in regard to the incompliance with the AML requirements.
The Financial Intelligence Agency is a full member of the Egmont Group, the international organization of the financial intelligence services with over 100 members from all over the world. The aim of Egmont Group is to assist and facilitate the exchange of financial intelligence information worldwide.
