On Tuesday 16 April, the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies (CFCS) at RUSI changed its name to become the Centre for Finance and Security (CFS).
Since CFCS’s inception in 2014, the geopolitical landscape has rapidly evolved, and finance has become an increasingly important dimension of global security. The group’s name change better reflects this evolution. CFS will not lose sight of or reduce its engagement with the topic of financial crime, but the change of name to the Centre for Finance and Security represents the extent to which the team has supplemented that long track-record with an equal focus on wider finance and security issues such as sanctions and the financial dimension of state threats.
Over the past 10 years, CFS has established itself as a leading European research programme specialising in the intersection of finance and global security. The programme’s 10th anniversary celebrations will drive CFS’s research agenda for 2024 and beyond. CFS’s research will be amplified by public events, social media outreach, podcasts, media engagements, and videos to achieve maximum reach and impact.
CFS will continue to provide pioneering insights on emerging threats, produce policy recommendations and analytical findings, and deliver technical training across Europe. The group will be forecasting what’s to come in the next 10 years in its upcoming ‘Future Of’ series, which will focus in particular on fraud, sanctions, AI, technology and the Financial Action Task Force.
Looking back at the projects we have pursued over the past decade, it is clear that our world has expanded and become more complex. For example, terrorist financing has become tech-enabled, fraud has become organised and transnational, and the financial dimension of state threats looms large in a world of fragmenting geopolitics. Our new name – the Centre for Finance and Security – also reflects the changing world and how we have developed in recent years. Yet our core ambition remains as relevant as ever.
Tom Keatinge
Director, CFS
