The Financial Intelligence Office of Macao (GIF) and its Hong Kong counterparts have been committed to enhance different cooperation mechanism of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CFT) between Hong Kong and Macao through regular visits or meetings. Following the virtual "Hong Kong-Macao AML/CFT Experience Sharing Meeting" held by GIF and Hong Kong Joint Financial Intelligence Unit (HKJFIU) in October last year, the physical interaction of people between Hong Kong and Macao has restarted after the relax of travel restrictions across border earlier this year. As such, Hong Kong Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB) visited GIF on 3 March 2023.
 
With the relaxation of the epidemic preventive measures in 2023, travel and economic activities between Hong Kong and Macao have resumed. Therefore, this meeting mainly focused on AML/CFT cooperation mechanism between Hong Kong and Macao, which included the sharing on analysis of cross-border suspicious transactions’ trends and typologies in recent years and deepen bilateral cooperation in different means, so as to effectively mitigate money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing risks caused by cross-border illicit fund flows.
 
GIF was also grateful to HKJFIU under FIIB for its active support in intelligence exchange over the years. The timely sharing of key intelligence assisted GIF’s suspicious transaction analysis in the fight against ML. In conclusion, the meeting achieved remarkable results. Both parties agreed that close communication and cooperation must be sustained to safeguard the financial security and support the healthy development of the financial system after the economic recovery. Participants in the meeting included Senior Superintendent Chan Yan, Superintendent Chow Cheung-Yau and Chief Inspector Sin Chor-ka and other representatives from FIIB, and Director Chu Un I, Deputy Director Fong Iun Kei and other representatives from GIF.