Fight against illicit finance

The threat posed by illicit finance is not new, nor is it limited to state actors. Illicit financing enables criminals to profit from heinous crimes and finance terrorism. It can cause enormous financial and human harm to individuals, communities, taxpayers, governments and wider society. It is often the most vulnerable, for example those living in poverty or in corruption-ridden jurisdictions, who are most at risk. Moreover, the scope of illicit financing is broad. These include corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud and the statistics paint a frightening picture. Globally, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated the amount of money laundered annually at 2% to 5% of global GDP, bringing the total to $1.9 to $4.9 trillion.

While these systemic challenges are significant, there is a growing consensus among policymakers, regulators, law enforcement and the private sector that system-wide reform is essential. There is a growing shift in sentiment and momentum for change around the world, driven by new legislation, policy changes and partnerships between the public and private sectors. While the challenges are significant, policymakers, regulators, law enforcement agencies and the private sector have recently made some progress in developing solutions.

The global response to illicit finance is at an inflection point. The scale and impact of illicit financial activities are increasing and the poor results achieved against the threats they pose are such that more can be done. A whole systems approach is needed that empowers all stakeholders in the ecosystem (regulators, supervisors, law enforcement, policymakers) to maximise the impact they can have on achieving results against criminals. Some recommendations for change include: Prioritising clear systems leadership, which means there should be a system leader who can bring the entire ecosystem together to create a cross-sector response to a cross-sector problem, working together to make progress towards an agreed ambition; Improving the exchange of information between judicial officials as well as public and private stakeholders; Enable faster action by reducing duplicate processes; Boosting public sector funding; Improving asset recovery rates, bringing investigators with high-quality skills to the table: forensic accounting, asset tracing, cyber and the ability to access and analyse open-source intelligence and finally; Increasing the transparency of data sharing between registries.