Public–Private Security Cooperation: From Cyber to Financial Crime

Over the past two years, there has been considerable focus in the UK on developing a strategic and tactical partnership between the public and private sectors in order to achieve a step-change in the country’s response to financial crime. Speaking at RUSI in June 2014, Theresa May, the then home secretary, emphasised the importance of the partnership between private sector companies and law enforcement to tackling financial crime, preventing money laundering and recovering the proceeds of crime. The result: the formation of the Financial Sector Forum and the creation of the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT), a public–private partnership dedicated to collaboration in order to enhance the national response to financial crime.

While this nascent effort appears to be gaining traction, and the JMLIT is being moved to a permanent footing, it is certainly not the first such initiative to be established. This paper from RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies considers lessons that can be learnt from the establishment of previous public–private partnerships, in particular the Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership (CiSP). The author stresses the importance of establishing measurable objectives that are co-designed and agreed upon from the outset. Too often such partnerships, established in good faith and with undoubted commitment, fade as the initial enthusiasm wanes, staff are reassigned, and those contributing time and resources question the value of their commitment.

As the UK’s JMLIT emerges from its pilot phase, the longevity of this initiative will be challenged as its initial momentum fades. It is therefore critical that the JMLIT draws on the experience of other, similarly important public–private sector security partnerships in order to anticipate and address the challenges it might face as it matures.

About the Author

Dr Hugo Rosemont is Policy Adviser on Crime, Security, Risk and Safety issues at the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Prior to his current appointment, he served as Teaching Fellow and Assistant Director of the Centre for Defence Studies within the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. In April 2015, he was awarded his PhD (also with King’s College London) with a thesis on the ‘security-industrial complex’ that reassessed the origins, characteristics and consequences of the private sector’s involvement in the counterterrorism aspects of contemporary UK national security strategy. Previously, Hugo served as Policy Adviser (Security and Resilience) to ADS – the organisation advancing the UK aerospace, defence and security industries. In this role, he provided security policy advice to the ADS Security Sector Board and the UK Security and Resilience Industry Suppliers Community (RISC). He was also a member of the Home Office’s Olympic and Paralympic Industry Advisory Group and served as Security Executive to both the winning London 2012 Olympic bid team and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG). In addition to his current role at the BRC, Hugo lectures and consults in an independent capacity on public–private security cooperation. His commentary has appeared in media outlets including, among others, the BBC, ITV, France 24, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Sun and The Guardian. He has been
interviewed by John Humphrys on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, and by Nick Ferrari on LBC. He writes this paper in an independent capacity.