National Financial Crime Fighter Day is a holiday observed annually on October 26th that pays homage to the professionals who pursue financial crimes. These include Bank Secrecy Act professionals and financial crime fighters who spend every day protecting the financial system of the United States.

It also pays respect to other government officials and law enforcement officers who work to bring financial criminals to justice. Criminals use money laundering and other criminal activities to fund terrorists, drug cartels, and organized crime syndicates. Although the work of crime-fighting professionals often goes unnoticed, they are very important to this country’s financial security.

The History of National Financial Crime Fighter Day

This holiday was created in 2018 by Abrigo—an enterprise risk management platform. They wanted to create a holiday that showed appreciation for Banking Secrecy Act (BSA) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) professionals who work hard to keep the U.S. financial industry safe.

Facts About Financial Crime

Since we’re talking about professionals who fight financial crimes, we thought it might be appropriate to spend some time talking about financial crimes and list some facts we’ve learned about them below.

• The first country to make money laundering illegal was the U.S.
• In 2019, banks paid in excess of $10 billion in fines for violations of anti-money laundering policies.
• In 2019, criminals moved over $2.8 billion in Bitcoin for money laundering.
• Approximately 400 times more money is laundered in fiat currencies than what is laundered in cryptocurrency.
• In the United Kingdom, approximately a third of all money mules are under the age of 21 years old.

Observing National Financial Crime Fighter Day

This is a day on which people can show their appreciation to BSA, AML, and law enforcement officials for keeping the U.S. financial sector safe. If you don’t happen to know anyone who works in this sector, then you can always give a general shout-out over social media using the hashtag #FinancialCrimeFighterDay. That always works well.