Nick Lewis OBE

RUSI Associate Fellow

Areas of expertise

Illicit Trade, Trafficking, and Illicit Financial Flows

RUSI Research Group: Military Sciences

Nick Lewis is Managing Director, High Risk Client Unit, at Standard Chartered Bank. He worked in UK law enforcement for over 30 years and led several significant operations with partner agencies around the world into organised crime threats against the UK. He has significant experience in leading complex multi-national investigations and working with public and private bodies to develop effective strategies to reduce and tackle the harm caused by organised crime activity - in particular building effective public-private partnerships and taskforce models in the UK and overseas.

Nick served as Counsellor, Transnational Organised Crime at the British Embassy, Washington DC between 2008 and 2013. As well as leading the UK’s strategic engagement on organised crime with the US government, he led a team of embedded UK liaison officers across the US and the Caribbean, tackling organised crime groups operating at a global level.

In March 2013, he was awarded the National Intelligence Medallion by the US Government, and in 2014 was awarded an OBE for “services to international law and order” by Her Majesty The Queen.

Nick joined Standard Chartered in 2016, where he oversees complex multi-jurisdictional financial crime investigations, intelligence assessments and the management of high-risk clients. He is a member of the UK Finance Information and Intelligence Committee, represents industry on a number of UK Economic Crime reform programmes and sits on the Board of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.

Transatlantic Response to Illicit Finance Taskforce Member

Thoughts on the Taskforce on a Transatlantic Response to Illicit Finance (TARIF):

The UK and US working together provides the backbone of a global alliance which can be deployed for the benefit of all countries … we have a period of political stability in both countries, a shared will to tackle problems which have a global impact, and a shared domestic reform agenda which presents a unique opportunity to make improvements relevant and permanent.