Fraud is "intentional deception to obtain undue advantage."(1) A broad term, a collective term, but in any case a form of deception.(2) Increasingly, citizens, organizations and the government are being harmed by financial fraud. Examples of financial fraud include identity fraud, healthcare fraud, laundering of fraud money obtained, and terrorist financing.

Financial fraud and other forms of financial-economic crime disrupt economic transactions between citizens and undermine trust in the government. The integrity of systems such as the financial markets and the healthcare system also suffers.(3) The detection and combating of financial fraud is therefore a priority for competent bodies such as the FIOD and the Public Prosecution Service.

Criminals are well organized, operate across borders and, since the corona crisis, are increasingly striking digitally. Data sharing is therefore crucial to tackling financial fraud, while also respecting privacy rules.(4)

At the national level, one of the measures to combat financial fraud is an incident alert system (blacklist). This list allows for the registration and exchange of data on fraudulent (legal) persons.(5) At the European level, in the fight against the laundering of proceeds of fraud and the financing of terrorism, new measures were taken in 2018. One of these is the introduction of a register of "ultimate stakeholders of an organization, the UBO register, which came into effect in the Netherlands in 2020.(6)

Footnotes

(1) https://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/fraude
(2) https://www.fiod.nl/wat-is-fraude/
(3) https://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/fraude
(4) https://www.nvb.nl/themas/veiligheid-fraude/veiligheid-fraude/
(5) https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/nl/zelf-doen/register-zwarte-lijsten/zwarte-lijst-financiele-instellingen
(6) https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/financiele-sector/vraag-en-antwoord/wat-doet-de-overheid-tegen-witwassen