News
International Group Approves Plan to Target Islamic State Funding
By Irene Madongo
printRepresentatives of over 20 nations meeting in Paris endorsed a plan to choke off international funding of Islamic State militants and prevent the organization from financing its growing cadre of foreign affiliates. A panel within the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, which includes the United States, European Union, Russia and Saudi Arabia, agreed Tuesday to block the group from using the global financial system, extorting money from businesses and taxing goods that transit, enter or are derived from territories under its control, according to a diplomatic source. "Practical initiatives" and related measures drafted in previous meetings of the coalition's Counter...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
Financial institutions should be mindful of any number of strategies that retreating Islamic State fighters may employ to move their funds into and through the formal banking system as the terrorist group continues yielding ground in Iraq and Syria, say analysts.
Recent military setbacks have diminished the Islamic State's control over local populations, natural resources and cultural antiquities in Iraq and Syria, raising the possibility that the group may turn to drug trafficking and other criminal schemes to generate revenue, say sources.
Among the many challenges of identifying terrorist funds is the fact that they can be hidden in plain sight, according to Colin P. Clarke, an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation who studies the subject.
The French government intends to move quickly to strengthen protections against terrorist financiers, including broadening investigatory access to data on suspected militants and toughening oversight of prepaid cards, a top official said Monday.
EU leaders want the European Commission to propose new steps to fight terrorist financing by next month, the economic bloc's justice and interior ministers said Friday.
EU interior ministers on Friday will consider new steps to cut off financial flows to terrorist groups, including a proposal to create a bloc-wide database of bank accounts, according to sources.
U.S. financial institutions have identified funds potentially linked to last week's terrorist attacks in Paris, according to a top counterterrorism investigator with the FBI.
U.S. officials on Tuesday levied asset freezes and travel bans against 30 individuals and entities for joining the Islamic State or otherwise aiding the group's military operations and territorial expansion.
Though mobile banking and stored value cards have created new opportunities for financial crimes, many terrorist organizations still rely on petty fraud to raise money, at times through financial institutions, according to a former U.K. terror investigator.