RUSI experts welcome government Action Plan for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance

 Tom Keatinge, Director of RUSI's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies observed: 

“Last October the government published a relatively bleak assessment of money laundering and terrorist finance risk in the UK.  This ambitious plan is a response to that assessment, as well as feedback from the private sector, and is an effort to bring the UK's approach into the Twenty-first century and reflect the UK's position as a leading international financial centre.

The plan relies heavily on two key pillars: public/private partnership that seeks to produce better law enforcement outcomes by leveraging the capabilities of the private sector; and investment by the government in people and technology to improve its own capabilities.  Delivering on these two pillars will not be straightforward.

The government has repeatedly called for the UK to be a hostile place for ML/TF with little noticeable effect and thus implementation of this plan will be closely scrutinised.  In particular, the effectiveness of this plan will be assessed by the Financial Action Task Force when it visits the UK in late 2017.  In our  view, the government has a lot to get right before that visit [for more information, see our report 'Destination 2018', published December 2016’, which will be the moment when we discover whether the government's plan is more than just ambition.”

RUSI's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies will continue to track the government's work in this field with regular reports, comments, and events.

Follow the work of RUSI’s Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at http://rusi.org/expertise/research/centre-financial-crime-and-security-studies