WIREDGOV

Today’s financial integrity architecture took shape in an era of multilateral cooperation. Can it still be effective in a world divided by war and geopolitical rivalry?

The global system for combating illicit finance was built for a different world. Centred on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), established at the 1989 G7 Summit in Paris, it emerged during an era of growing economic integration, expanding multilateral cooperation and a financial architecture dominated by the US dollar.

That world is disappearing. Geopolitical rivalries are intensifying, sanctions have proliferated, and technology is creating new ways to move and conceal value. The global financial order is fragmenting too. What is emerging is not one alternative system, but a growing variety of options, driven by states seeking strategic autonomy, countries responding to necessity and illicit actors spotting new opportunities.

As the UK’s 2025 National Security Strategy underlines, finance has become an increasingly important dimension of our security. It enables war, hybrid activity, proliferation, political interference and sanctions evasion. But correctly employed, it also provides the information and leverage needed to identify and disrupt these threats. Following the money has moved well beyond financial crime enforcement; it now has the potential to play a central role in national and international security.

Much of the global response, however, is rooted in frameworks designed for another era. This special issue of the RUSI Journal, ‘Illicit Finance in a Fragmenting World’, asks whether the current system remains fit for purpose and what must change if it is to keep pace.

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