By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) has hosted its initial Executive Forum for CI-FIRST, an initiative to share more information with financial institutions.
Guy Ficco, the IRS-CI Chief, said the scheme has the potential to be a ‘game changer’ in the fight against financial crime.
“We hosted some of the most senior executive leaders from the financial community during the CI-FIRST Executive Forum,” he said.
“We had a robust discussion about our partnerships.
Mr Ficco added: “[We] also pledged our commitment to enhancing investigative efficiency and streamlining the case development process.”
The forum was held in IRS-CI’s headquarters in Washington D.C.
CI-FIRST is a public-private partnership program between IRS-CI and financial institutions announced in March.
IRS-CI said it aims to disrupt and dismantle financial crimes and address emerging threats.
“The program utilizes feedback loops, actionable intelligence, and strategic engagement,” the organization said.
It added that this fosters “information sharing and collaboration” between IRS-CI and financial institutions.
“[It also] enhances investigative efficiency, and streamlines the subpoena and case development process,” it said.
Lauren Kohr, a senior strategic engagement advisor at IRS-CI, said CI-FIRST is “addressing decades old challenges”.
This refers to collaboration between law enforcement and financial institutions.
She said the initiative will provide “direct feedback” on useful BSA (Bank Secrecy Act) reporting.
Additionally, she also said it will involve hosting executive and regional forums on priority threats, and “creating feedback loops for highly actionable SARs”.
“We look forward to launching our regional forums soon,” she said.
“[These] will focus on providing feedback to community and regional banks. And continuing to build strong public-private collaboration and operational feedback loops.”
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