Financing Terrorism

Groups committing acts of terrorism have adapted their means of financing to elude detection since the 9/11 attacks in the United States. Surveying the global community’s multi-year effort to cut off terrorist funding, this volume offers a much-needed analysis of a complex, widely discussed, yet poorly understood subject. While books on terrorism have touched upon the topic, this is the first comprehensive, balanced, and scholarly overview of terrorist financing, its methods, and efforts to counter it. Bringing together leading analysts of terrorism, international relations, global finance, law, and criminology, Countering the Financing of Terrorism provides a critical assessment of the international effort to restrict terrorist financing. It evaluates the costs and benefits and offers recommendations for more effective policies for the future.

In declaring the war against terrorism President George W. Bush also declared war on the financing of terrorism. In this book, bankers, regulators and academics pose a variety of questions from their individual perspectives: What can financial institutions realistically contribute to the suppression of terrorist financing? Can individual rights be protected in these circumstances? These questions are analyzed by experts who come up with some thought-provoking answers.

This book analytically reviews the impact of the global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework on the compliance trajectory of a number of jurisdictions to this framework. The work begins by examining the international financial sector reform and its evolution to inculcate the global framework for AML/CFT regulations. It challenges the resulting uniform AML/CFT due to its paradoxical impact on the compliance trajectory of African countries and emerging economies (ACs/EEs). This is done through an examination of the pre-conditions for effective regulation and compliance drivers for ACs/EEs that reveals the behavioural impact of the AML/CFT standards on the bloc of countries. Through the application of agency theory, it explores the relationship between ACs/EEs on the one hand and the international financial institutions that formulate, disseminate and facilitate compliance with the global framework for AML/CFT standards on the other. The remaining chapters review empirically the compliance pressures and resulting compliance trajectory of ACs/EEs with the AML/CFT standards. The final part of the book provides a detailed explanation of the compliance challenges of ACs/EEs and the legitimacy concerns that facilitate this. This book offers a new direction on the impact of global AML/CFT standards on ACs/EEs and contributes to the understanding of the conditions under which the global standards are likely to facilitate proactive compliance within these blocs of countries. As such it will be a valuable resource for academics, researchers and policy-makers working in this area.

This book takes a broadly comparative approach to analyzing how the financing of global jihadi terrorist groups has evolved in response to government policies since September 11, 2001.

"Money laundering and terrorist financing are serious crimes that affect not only those persons directly involved, but the economy as a whole. According to international standards, every bank has the obligation to know its customers and to report suspicious transactions. Although these obligations sound straightforward, they have proved challenging to implement. What information precisely has to be gathered? How should it be recorded? If and when does one have to file a suspicious transaction report? It is here that a supervisor can play a crucial role in helping supervised institutions; first, in understanding the full extent of the obligations of Customer Due Diligence and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) and, second, in ensuring that those obligations are not just words on paper but are applied in practice. Effective supervision is key to the success of a country's AML/CFT system. In this regard, field work in both developed and developing countries has shown an overall low compliance in the area of supervision of banks and other financial institutions; supervisory compliance is indeed generally lower than the average level of compliance with all Financial Action Task Force recommendations. As a result, by providing examples of good practices, this book aims to help countries better conform to international standards. In this regard, this handbook is specifically designed for bank supervisors.

During the last few decades, corrupt financial practices were increasingly being monitored in many countries around the globe. The past few decades have been eventful for these issues. Today, tackling money laundering and terrorism financing are considered key issues in developed and developing countries alike. Eradication of money laundering and terrorism financing through a holistic approach of awareness, prevention, and enforcement is a current need. It has enabled the birth of new regulatory regimes based on strict compliance, robust processes, and technology. One of the many problems with this is the lack of general awareness about all these issues among various stakeholders including researchers and practitioners. Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing in Global Financial Systems deepens the discourse about money laundering, terrorism financing, and risk management in a modern-day environment. It provides a fascinating and invaluable guide for understanding the theory, practice, and cases of these topics. Split into two sections, the first being money laundering and terrorism financing and the second being financial governance and risk management, the chapters create comprehensive knowledge on these acts of crime in the financial industry by defining the crimes themselves, the many challenges and impacts, and potential solutions. This book is ideal for government officials, financial professionals, policymakers, academicians, business professionals, managers, IT specialists, researchers, and students.

This in-depth, historical analysis of terrorism investigates the major funding streams of terrorists, insurgents, guerrillas, warlords, militias, and criminal organizations throughout the world as well as the efforts of the international community to thwart their efforts. Terrorist financing is an ongoing game of creating, concealing, and surreptitiously utilizing funds. This intriguing book considers every facet of guerrilla funding—from how activities are financed, to what insurgents do with the revenue they generate, to the range of countermeasures in place for deterring their moneymaking activities. Case studies prompt an analysis of past government responses and inform recommendations for countering irregular warfare worldwide. Author Colin P. Clarke presents the business side of terrorism, taking a look at the cash-producing ventures he labels "gray activities" such as diaspora support, charities, fraudulent businesses, front companies, and money laundering as well as "dark activities" including kidnapping for ransom, robbery, smuggling, trafficking, and extortion. He considers the transnational efforts to stop terrorist activities—from wiretaps and electronic surveillance to financial sanctions and the freezing of funds and accounts—and points to the emergence of interagency task forces for detaining and destroying the operations of major criminal organizations across the globe.

ÔIn recent years a great deal has been written about terrorism and how best to inhibit and undermine terroristÕs aspirations. Much of this literature tends to be one dimensional reflecting the experience of the author. Dr Ridley having had a long and diverse career in intelligence and in particular financial analysis has succeeded in going far beyond description of a series of war stories to providing not only a starting account of the range and character of modern terrorism, but also a knowledgeable analysis of the measures adopted around the world to combat the threat. Of critical importance, in the minds of many, has been the adoption of techniques in the main from the Òwar against drugsÓ facilitating the identification and disruption of finance. While emphasising the value of financial intelligence Dr Ridley, now as a scholar, dispassionately questions how successful this strategy has been and where it might take us. Such issues need to be aired and resolved if we are not to undermine the very values which we seek to protect.Õ Ð Barry Rider, University of Cambridge, UK ÔThis is hugely important and highly relevant contribution by a world expert, which adds to our knowledge of terrorist funding. It will make practitioners and academics alike, not to mention politicians who should be seeking their advice, stop and think.Õ Ð John Grieve, Portsmouth University, UK and former UK National Co-ordinator for Counter Terrorism ÔDr. Ridley has authored an excellent, analytical, comprehensive, and solutions-oriented book addressing the complexities of terror financing and the challenges in combating this menace. Dr. RidleyÕs unique insight, arising from substantial academic and professional experiences on combating terror financing, lends substantial credibility to the volume.Õ Ð Dean C. Alexander, Western Illinois University, US This authoritative book provides a holistic overview of terrorist groups and finances, including consideration of the necessity and differing financial needs of different groups. For over a decade international efforts by law enforcement, government and financial regulatory authorities have been deployed in combatting terrorist financing, in good faith and with dedication beyond reproach. This book surveys the methods of financing of numerous terrorist groups and organisations Ð including the Chinese and Asian dimension Ð and considers why ultimately international efforts to combat the financing of terror are failing. Nick Ridley expertly illustrates the scale of the problem by first outlining the strategies of anti terrorist financing, the pre and post 9/11 differences in scope and extent of terrorist attacks, the financial support and the national and international efforts to implement and carry out countermeasures. He then goes on to set out a detailed analysis of the apparent failure of such counter measures to date. Including operational case studies and details from the authors own experience, studies and access to law enforcement and private sector sources, this book will prove insightful for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying criminology, history and law disciplines. Those in the legal profession will also find plenty of useful information in this topical compendium.