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As Terror Threat Grows, Banks Tailor Efforts to Identify Militant Funding
By Colby Adams
printIn light of growing militant threats and increasing sophistication in terrorist funding networks, a handful of banks are rethinking how to monitor and act upon financial intelligence. The changes entail tailoring regulatory compliance programs to identify transactions linked to individual terrorist organizations in specific jurisdictions with "close to real-time" granular analysis, according to Dennis Lormel, former head of the FBI's Terrorist Financing Operations Section. "We're past the point where it's only on the radar," said Lormel, now a consultant for banks. "The goal now is to stay ahead, if you can." The effort comes amid calls from the Paris-based Financial...
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Two of Europe's powerhouse economies are expected to push for tougher controls to stamp out terrorist financing this month in reaction to a spate of attacks on the continent.
The House Financial Services Committee approved the formation of a taskforce Wednesday to recommend how to better cut off funding networks used by terrorist organizations.
An intergovernmental group that sets compliance standards will soon evaluate the counterterrorist laws of dozens of nations in light of turmoil in Iraq and Syria and recent attacks in Europe.
In the strange and often obscure world of terrorist financing, an account's lack of transactional activity seems an unlikely red flag for anti-money laundering compliance officers.
The disclosure that Saudi Arabia has become one of the world's largest sources of terrorist financing has raised questions about the willingness of intergovernmental groups to clamp down on nations with strong international alliances.
Governments should ramp up their efforts to investigate and prosecute money launderers, including by providing additional powers and resources to local law enforcement, an international watchdog group said.
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.
Saudi terrorist financiers are increasingly relying on cash couriers to circumvent the country's anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing laws, according to a report by a U.S. governmental watchdog.
An anti-money laundering watchdog group today released guidelines on how countries can best identify and freeze assets tied to terrorist financing.
An anti-money laundering watchdog association will issue guidelines on how countries can best identify and freeze the assets of terror financiers, the organization said Monday.
Seven years have passed since the amendment of the U.S. anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing laws and it's a "fresh new world," according to Andrew Cochrane, the founder and co-editor of The Counterterrorism Blog.