The UK’s Integrated Review, published in March 2021, provided considerable indications of the UK’s ambition to tackle money laundering and other financial crimes. Matthew Redhead speaks to CFCS colleagues Tom Keatinge, Helena Wood and Emil Dall about the attention given by the Review to – respectively – illicit finance, UK economic crime, and sanctions, as a dimension of the UK’s foreign, security and defence policy. RUSI’s Keith Ditcham lends to this discussion his serious and organised crime perspective.

Fraud against UK citizens, businesses, and the public purse has reached unprecedented levels. But does the political narrative in response to this scourge match the enormity of the challenge? The CFCS’s Helena Wood and Tom Keatinge are joined by RUSI Trustee and former UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd, and Mike Haley from fraud prevention service Cifas, to discuss the findings of a new RUSI research paper calling for a fundamentally different approach to fraud in the UK, one which would place the topic into the context of national security.

Following the recent wave of attacks by far-right extremists around the world, the task of throttling the financing of right-wing terrorism and extremism has seldom been more pressing. The CFCS’s Stephen Reimer speaks with Bethan Johnson, a scholar on modern extremist and terrorist ideologies at Cambridge University, about trends in the financial activities of far-right violent elements, their fundraising and spending habits, and the impact of the current pandemic on their future financing.

The emergence of new financial services and methods of payment has brought greater variety and choice, but as with many innovations, the advantages have not been lost on criminal groups. Standard Chartered’s Catherine Woods is joined by colleague Chris Kiewsmith, the CFCS’s Kayla Izenman, Vincent Li from Ant Bank, and RUSI Associate Fellow Malcolm Wright to consider the current financial threat landscape in relation to new methods of payment, how money laundering can be detected, and priorities and best practices for managing exposure.

Policing is essential to the UK’s response to economic crime, yet it is an area that the government all too often overlooks. In this episode, recorded in February 2020, CFCS Associate Fellow Helena Wood is joined by Commander Karen Baxter of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, as well as by Waheed Saleem from the West Midlands Police, and Graeme Biggar from the National Economic Crime Centre in a debate on what policing needs to be if it is to tackle current and emerging economic crime threats.

Twenty years on from the 9/11 attacks, has the global response to terrorist financing adapted, alongside the evolving risk landscape? The CFCS’s Tom Keatinge is joined by Rachel Love from Standard Chartered Bank and Professor Jimmy Gurulé from Notre Dame Law School in the US to discuss the CFCS’s recent paper, ‘A sharper image: Advancing a Risk-Based Response to Terrorist Financing’ and examine the current state of counterterrorist financing efforts.  

RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS) is launching Season Three of their Suspicious Transaction Report podcast. The theme is ‘Policy into Practice’ and episodes will feature experts and practitioners from around the world, who turn global policy into reality on the ground. In the trailer episode, Isabella Chase talks to Tom Keatinge about the thinking behind the series and what guests can expect.

Dirty money is flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators and poisoning democracies. Journalist Tom Burgis unveils the stories that form his book Kleptopia. Alexandra Wrage of Trace moderates and together they take us into the murky realm of global illicit flows.   

In February 2020, the UK government launched a consultation on its plans to establish up to 10 freeports in the UK. Alexandria Reid is joined by Richard Ballantyne from the British Ports Association, Consultant Clay Fuller, and Irene Mia from the Economist Intelligence Unit, to ask, how can the UK reap the benefits of its proposed freeports while mitigating criminal risks.

2020 was a roller coaster for Unexplained Wealth Orders in the UK! CFCS’s Anton Moiseienko takes stock of the setbacks and triumphs with barristers Anita Clifford and James Mather and Alun Milford, former General Counsel at the Serious Fraud Office. Together they explore what the future may hold for UWOs.