EFECC Operations is Europol’s initiative in the fight against economic and financial crime. It is an operational platform to support Member States in ongoing cases in the areas of tax crime (MTIC and excise), fraud, corruption, money laundering, asset recovery, euro counterfeiting and intellectual property crime. The only pre-requisites to be eligible for EFECC Operations support are that the case affects one or more Member States and involves a criminal offence in respect of which Europol is competent.

EFECC Operations was established in June 2020 to provide EU Member States with a pan-European platform to integrate and analyse dedicated economic and financial crime data.

EFECC Operations provides a platform through which operational data pertaining to suspicious transaction/ activity reports filed by financial intelligent units (FIUs), reports on cash detections (usually from customs authorities) and ongoing economic and financial crime investigations from all relevant agencies (including but not limited to: customs, tax and police services) across the EU and beyond are treated, analysed and processed.

This platform serves the primary purpose of supporting and assisting competent authorities on the prevention and investigation of transnational criminal organisations involved in economic and financial crime.

EFECC will enhance Europol’s operational support to EU Member States and EU bodies in financial and economic crime and promote the consistent use of financial investigations. The centre will forge alliances with public and private entities to trace, seize and confiscate criminal assets in the EU and beyond.

Highly sophisticated cases of money laundering, scams and frauds that target individuals, companies and the public sector continue to threaten the growth of the economy and the integrity of our financial system.

Every year, law enforcement in the EU carry out hundreds of international financial crime investigations often leading to exceptional results, arrests and dismantling criminal groups. But the EU still shows mediocre results when it comes to recovering criminal assets – criminals keep over 98% of their assets.

To respond to this threat, Europol has been entrusted by EU Member States to create the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC). This development follows Europol’s Strategy 2020+ and has been welcomed by EU institutions and key private financial stakeholders alike.

Enhancing the exploitation of financial intelligence across the EU.
Engaging with organisations and non-EU countries.
Acting as the main repository on EU criminal intelligence, threats and trends related to fraud, money laundering, corruption and various forms of intellectual property crime and euro counterfeiting.

Promoting the systematic use of financial investigations by the competent authorities of the Member States and third partners to disrupt all forms of criminalities.
Providing analytical and other forms of support to investigations.
European platform for policing solutions

An integral part of Europol’s Operations Directorate, EFECC provides direct, vertical support to EU Member States and other strategic and operational partners, working closely with other operational centres at Europol, such as the European Serious and Organised Crime Centre (ESOCC), the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC).