Definition
TRACFIN (Traitement du Renseignement et Action contre les Circuits Financiers clandestins) is France's financial intelligence unit (FIU), created in 1990 and attached to the Ministry of Finance.
Its mission: to collect, analyse and enrich the suspicious activity reports filed by AML/CFT obliged entities (banks, PSPs, EMIs, CASPs, notaries, estate agents, casinos), in order to detect operations linked to money laundering or terrorist financing and forward them to the relevant authorities.
Its role in the AML/CFT chain
TRACFIN is the central link between obliged entities and investigative authorities:
- The obliged entity detects a suspicion (an atypical transaction, an inconsistent profile).
- It files a suspicious activity report (SAR) via the ERMES online procedure.
- TRACFIN analyses it and cross-references it with other sources (intelligence, sanctions, tax data).
- If confirmed, it forwards the case to the public prosecutor (judicial referral) or to government bodies (DGFiP, Customs, ACPR, AMF, CAF).
- More rarely, it can block an operation on a reasoned request.
The types of report
- Standard SAR: as soon as a suspicion exists.
- COSI (Communication Systématique d'Information): automatic filing above thresholds (e.g. cash fund transfers > €1,000).
- Supplementary SAR: adding elements to a previous SAR.
- SAR in response to a right of communication: TRACFIN can request additional elements.
The obliged entity must not reveal the SAR to the customer (no tipping off), under penalty of criminal sanctions.
Key figures (2023-2024)
- ~211,000 SARs received in 2024 (vs ~186,500 in 2023, +13%).
- The financial sector accounts for more than 90% of SARs, especially banks.
- ~8,600 disclosures forwarded in 2023 to partners (judicial, tax, customs, intelligence).
- Identified losses: several billion euros per year.
Common typologies
Tax fraud (the leading cause), undeclared work, public-finance fraud (CAF, Covid funds), VAT fraud (carousel), drug trafficking, corruption, terrorist financing (low in volume but critical) and crypto-assets (exploding since 2020).
What TRACFIN is not
- Not a police service: it analyses and forwards, it neither investigates nor carries out searches.
- Not a sanctioning authority: it is the ACPR that sanctions a failure to file SARs at a PSP.
- Not accessible to the public: only a summary report is published each year.
- Not a substitute for the courts: its disclosures are intelligence; the prosecutor alone decides whether to open an investigation.
Protection of the reporting entity
A good-faith SAR protects the obliged entity: no civil, criminal or disciplinary liability (except for malicious denunciation), strictly confidential identity of the reporting party, and protection against any reaction from the customer (who cannot be informed).
Within the PSD2 ecosystem
All PSPs within the meaning of PSD2 (credit institutions, payment institutions, EMIs, agents) are obliged entities and must report to TRACFIN; CASPs have been since AMLD5. The quality of the SARs filed is an indicator of how robust a compliance framework is, something the ACPR monitors.
Real-world examples
- ERMES: the online interface where every SAR is filed (a structured form + attachments).
- Typical SAR: a customer receives €80k of unclear origin and immediately re-transfers it to a crypto platform; the compliance officer files a SAR, TRACFIN cross-references it and may refer it to the prosecutor.
- COSI: any cash fund transfer > €1,000 (Western Union, Wise) is forwarded automatically, with no suspicion required.
- Covid fraud: TRACFIN detected massive fraud involving state-backed loans (PGE) and the solidarity fund, forwarded to prosecutors.
- Crypto: SARs from crypto-asset providers jumped by more than 300% between 2022 and 2023.
- Cooperation: exchanges with European FIUs via FIU.NET (Europol) and with FinCEN (US) or AUSTRAC (Australia).
- AMLA: with the creation of the European authority (Frankfurt, 2025), tighter coordination is expected, while TRACFIN retains its national role.