Notary reports more unusual transactions

Last year, notaries reported slightly more unusual transactions than in 2020. The number of reports by notaries rose from 1,060 in 2020 to 1,100 in 2021. This is evident from the 2021 annual report of the Financial Intelligence Unit-Netherlands (FIU).

Last year, 351 unusual transactions reported by civil-law notaries were declared suspicious. In 2020, that number was 538. The number of civil-law notaries filing a report rose from 295 in 2020 to 318 in 2021.  

Increasing numbers
According to the annual report , a total of 1,230,411 unusual transactions were reported to the FIU in 2021. In 2020, this figure was 722,247. This continues the strong trend of increasing reported unusual transactions. A large portion of the increase of more than 500,000 reports compared to 2020 is attributable to crypto service providers and payment service providers.  

15.3 billion euros
In 2021, the FIU declared a total of 96,676 transactions suspicious, with a total value of over €15.3 billion. From 2016 through 2019, the number of suspicious transactions fluctuated between 39,000 and 57,000 per year. Since 2020, the FIU has seen a sharp increase in the number of transactions declared suspicious. In 2020, there were just over 100,000, and slightly fewer this year. This increase is the result of, among other things, investments in capacity and strengthening effectiveness and efficiency through improvements in technology, knowledge, and expertise at the FIU.