The model will provide authorities with a common basis to prioritise financial crimes based on pre-set criteria, ensuring they can maximise the use of limited resources.
The Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) has established an expert working group to refine the design of a new model that aims to help prioritise actions to tackle financial crime.
There are more than 20 major headline financial crime offences, which are also predicate offences to money laundering. The new model will help to determine which financial crime types should be prioritised, based on a set of criteria.
“The model is designed to provide countries with a common basis to consider, determine and communicate country prioritisation,” said John Cusack, Chair of the GCFFC, which was launched in 2018 to raise global awareness of the consequences of financial crime and promote more effective mechanisms for collaboration and information sharing.
“The model could also be used by lead agencies, for example, Interpol, the UNODC, the IMF, and/or the FATF in order to prioritise their own work, including carrying out more detailed threat assessments, and tracking progress,” Cusack said.
Under the model, the prioritisation criteria include:
- the prevalence of the financial crime
- the value of proceeds generated from the financial crime
- the direct harms, for example to victims of the financial crime
- the indirect harms, for example the costs to society
- the public resonance of the financial crime
- where a political mandate to prioritise action against an financial crime has been secured
The prioritisation criteria reflect feedback received from both public and private sectors on an earlier version of the model. The GCFFC is now setting up the first meeting of the export working group to further advance the model.
The model distinguishes between the priorities of public sector agencies (“financial crime priorities”) and those of the regulated financial sector (“AML/CTF priorities”).
The GCFFC has published a summary chart showing how the model would categorise the prioritisation of various financial crimes. The document says: “Not all financial crimes can and should be treated the same and so should be prioritised with limited intelligence and or resources so some level of triage and determination is required.”
Based on the prioritisation criteria, financial crime types such as organised crime, drug trafficking, terrorist financing and child exploitation would rank as “Very High” priorities for both public sector agencies and the regulated financial sector. Human trafficking, environmental crime, corruption, and fraud & scams would rank “High”.
Following the discussions of the expert working group, the GCFFC will publish more details on the model and provide additional clarity on the intended purpose and desired outcomes of this initiative.