RUSI Conference Addresses the Changing Dynamics of Finance and Security
The Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI hosted its 10th anniversary conference: FinSec25: Finance and Security in a Changing World on 11 February.
The conference convened senior policymakers, private sector representatives and experts from academia and think tanks to discuss the evolving dynamics at the intersection of finance and security, including rising geopolitical fragmentation, technological advancements, economic crime and illicit finance threats from state and non-state actors.
Reflecting on the importance of international action to tackle financial crime, Kinga Redlowska, Head of CFS Europe highlighted:
Illicit finance isn’t theoretical—it’s real, urgent, and deeply personal. We’re proud to play even a small role in this fight and won’t stop until justice prevails—for Ukraine and all who believe in financial integrity as a force for security and peace.
Kinga Redlowska
Head of CFS Europe
Speakers of the panels and participants in one-on-one discussions argued that while technological change has equipped criminals with new tools, it can also be harnessed to tackle crime more efficiently by, for example, establishing more refined screenings for terrorist financing. Panelists discussed how the existing anti-financial crime order is being challenged by geopolitical fragmentation, and how Western allies should respond to the growing use of finance as a dimension of state-based threats. Further discussions focused on understanding the mind of fraudsters and on NGOs’ role in the fight against human trafficking. A holistic approach to defend democracies from illicit finance was highlighted by Juan Zarate, from the National Endowment for Democracy’s Board of Directors, in his closing keynote address:
We are in an environment of conflict and competition. We can’t view sanctions, anti-money laundering, anti-corruption, and export controls as separate disciplines. They are part of a parcel of tools that the West must use to defend national economies and counter state and non-state threats.
Juan Zarate
National Endowment for Democracy, Board of Directors
The conference, marking the 10th anniversary of RUSI’s Centre for Finance and Security (CFS), reflected on the Centre’s decade of impactful research and charted the way forward for addressing the urgent and rising challenges. Closing the conference, Tom Keatinge, Director of the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI, underlined that:
There is a financial thread through security threats in a way that I think we often overlook. Our job – at CFS at RUSI – is to shine a light on it. (...) There is a need to be creative in the way that we think about finance and security.
Tom Keatinge
Director, CFS