Combating terrorist financing challenges banks

Banks monitor huge quantities of financial transactions on a daily basis, with the aim to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Political scientist Esmé Bosma studied the ways in which banks experiment with digital technologies and how they implement counter-terrorist financing regulations. She concludes that in practice there is limited success in terms of detecting transactions that might be associated with the financing of terrorism. At the same time, the aggregate of regulations does have implications for society. She will defend her PhD thesis at the University of Amsterdam on Friday 18 February. Since the 1990s, the role of banks in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing has become more relevant. Banks are increasingly obliged to carry out customer research, monitor transactions and report suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).