STS SFMS and BES will enhance the information exchange mechanism

Pooling Resources for Financial Security
In 2025, Ukraine took a strategic step to strengthen financial security — the State Tax Service (SFS), Derzhfinmonitoring, and the Economic Security Bureau (ESB) signed a tripartite memorandum to improve the mechanism of information sharing on financial transactions. This cooperation aims not only to promptly detect tax evasion or money laundering schemes but also to increase the effectiveness of the entire law enforcement ecosystem.

Reasons for Changes: Why Was Improvement Needed?
In recent years, the volume of illegal financial flows has increased, and offenders are increasingly using complex IT solutions, cryptocurrencies, and international schemes. Previous experience showed that fragmented actions and closed databases allowed criminals to outpace the state. To respond to modern challenges, synchronized and transparent interaction between all financial bodies is required.

What Does the New Mechanism Provide?

1. Unified Information Exchange System
   The SFS, Derzhfinmonitoring and ESB are developing a platform for swift data exchange, enabling:
   Faster identification of suspicious transactions;
   · Timely response to money laundering incidents;
   · Blocking of fictitious activities and financial intermediaries.

Information exchange is moving from sporadic to systematic, with clear procedures, secure IT channels, and a “single request” standard via a state information system (e.g., “Trembita”).

2. Joint Analytical Groups
   The memorandum establishes working groups comprising analysts from all three bodies. They jointly assess risks, work on new evasion schemes, prepare situation reports for management, and initiate deeper checks if data from different sources indicate violations.
3. Exchange of Experience and Clarifications
   To enhance staff qualifications, regular trainings and consultations on law interpretation practices and identification of new threats are conducted.

Practical Results: Tangible Changes in State Operations
● More fraudulent schemes blocked: already in 2025, thanks to information access, the ESB and Derzhfinmonitoring promptly identified dozens of schemes and stopped illegal fund outflows totaling over 30 million UAH in a single year.
● Progress in criminal cases: account blocking and better evidence bases turn delays into real results, increasing the number of cases going to court.
● Shorter response times: the time from detecting a violation to actually blocking suspicious funds has dropped from weeks to days or even hours.
● Improved analytics: synergy among all three agencies enables a fuller picture — from transactional activity and tax status to complex international chains.

Legal Aspect and IT Infrastructure
Interaction strictly complies with Ukrainian law — via comprehensively protected channels, using modern IT, and in line with cybersecurity requirements. Data exchange is based on a unified state electronic interaction system with built-in audit tools for transparency and protection against internal leaks.

Benefits for Business and Society
· Reduced corruption risks — businesses see predictable and uniform rules without creeping control.
· Increased international trust in Ukraine’s financial system, facilitating banking operations, attracting investment, and cooperation with foreign regulators.
· Flexible response to challenges — if offenders change tactics (for example, using new crypto tools), state agencies quickly update algorithms, share behavior patterns, and instantly revise risk profiles.

Conclusions
The joint initiative of the SFS, Derzhfinmonitoring, and ESB sets a new standard for state financial control quality. Its main idea is not to wait for violations but to prevent them. Flexibility, transparency, and rapid data exchange minimize budget losses and prevent the exploitation of loopholes for financial crimes.

For Ukraine, this is a move toward advanced European standards in combating financial offenses, and a significant contribution to overall economic stability amid the extraordinary challenges of wartime.

Author: Ihor Yasko, Managing Partner, Law Firm “WINNER”, PhD in Law.