STR: Suspicious Transaction Report
Royal United Services Institute
From the team analysing the intersection of finance and security, tune into compelling conversations on the real-world impact of global illicit finance.
This podcast explores the financial dimensions of today's leading transnational security challenges. Host Tom Keatinge and the team from the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI bring you unique insights on the challenges posed by illicit finance and practical analysis of the policy responses. They interview top thinkers and influential voices who unpack the complex world of money laundering, corruption, sanctions evasion and illicit flows, and explain how this shapes the evolving global security landscape, and what democracies and international institutions must do to stay ahead when it comes to the financial dimensions of the global threat outlook.
Suspicious Transaction Report is also home to CFS's 'Financial Crime Insights' podcast, which ran from 2020 to 2023.
This podcast explores the financial dimensions of today's leading transnational security challenges. Host Tom Keatinge and the team from the Centre for Finance and Security at RUSI bring you unique insights on the challenges posed by illicit finance and practical analysis of the policy responses. They interview top thinkers and influential voices who unpack the complex world of money laundering, corruption, sanctions evasion and illicit flows, and explain how this shapes the evolving global security landscape, and what democracies and international institutions must do to stay ahead when it comes to the financial dimensions of the global threat outlook.
Suspicious Transaction Report is also home to CFS's 'Financial Crime Insights' podcast, which ran from 2020 to 2023.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 28, 2024 • 37min
Enforcing and Preventing the Circumvention of Sanctions
In this episode, host Gonzalo Saiz, CFCS Research Fellow, is joined by Daniel Tannebaum, Partner at management consultancy firm Oliver Wyman, and Jan Dunin-Wasowicz, Partner and Co-Chair of Hughes Hubbard & Reed's Sanctions, Export Controls & Anti-Money Laundering practice group. They discuss the differences in the US and EU approaches to sanctions against Russia, how tackling the practice of sanctions circumvention through third countries impacts the private sector, and the role of enforcement action in countering sanctions violations.
Mar 15, 2024 • 48min
A Financial Crime View from Africa
Host Tom Keatinge, CFCS Director, is joined by Xolisile Khanyile, former head of South Africa's Financial Intelligence Centre and RUSI Senior Associate Fellow. They discuss her decades-long career as a prosecutor in the financial crime world, illegal wildlife trafficking, public-private partnerships, South Africa's FATF 'grey-listing', and how everyday crime impacts South Africa's response to money laundering.
Mar 1, 2024 • 54min
Treasury in the Time of Russia Sanctions: Insights with Liz Rosenberg
Host Tom Keatinge, CFCS Director, is joined by Liz Rosenberg, former Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the US Department of the Treasury. They discuss her ambitions for combatting illicit finance as she re-entered the US Treasury in 2021, her role in the review of the US sanctions strategy, the measures developed to respond to Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine, including the oil price cap, and the priorities ahead for the US two years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Feb 16, 2024 • 39min
Ukraine's Reconstruction: Russia Must Pay
Martin Sandbu, European economics commentator at the Financial Times, discusses the challenges and opportunities involved in using Russia's currently frozen Central Bank assets to support Ukraine's economy and reconstruction. The hashtag 'Russia Must Pay' is frequently trending on social media, boosted by politicians, civil society organisations and individuals outraged by Russia's continued aggression. But while this sentiment is easy for politicians and financiers to articulate, it has yet to be matched in deeds. Martin Sandbu joins host Tom Keatinge to explore how the $300 billion of immobilised Russian Central Bank assets could be unlocked and deployed to support the Ukrainian economy and fund the huge costs associated with the reconstruction of a country devastated by Russia's illegal war.
Feb 2, 2024 • 28min
Sanctioning China: Examining the Dilemma
China's regular muscle-flexing and other threatening moves towards Taiwan poses a great challenge. How should the West think about this behaviour, given the integration of China into the international economy and the extent to which the West relies on trade with Beijing? Could sanctions be used as a policy instrument here? In this episode, host Kinga Redlowska, Head of CFCS Europe, is joined by Emily Kilcrease, Senior Fellow and Director of the Energy, Economics and Security Programme at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). They discuss the findings of a recent CNAS report entitled 'No Winners in This Game: Assessing the US Playbook for Sanctioning China'. If you are curious about possible sanctions scenarios in the case of an escalation of tensions between the US and China, then don't miss this week's episode.
Jan 19, 2024 • 45min
Fighting Financial Crime: Insights with Danny Glaser
The financial crime and sanctions world has mushroomed into a global industry. Thousands of compliance officers, analysts, policymakers and law enforcement officials are involved in some element of this behemoth. Among these many thousands, a few figures have emerged as opinion formers – those who found themselves at the forefront of developments. In this episode, host Tom Keatinge, Director of the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI, is joined by Danny Glaser who has spent over 20 years at the heart of US efforts to advance the fight against financial crime. They talk about sanctions, terrorist financing, and the 'most powerful organisation few have ever heard of': the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Jan 5, 2024 • 31min
The Challenge of Sanctions Circumvention
Sanctions circumvention has been at the core of policy discussions on restrictive measures. But what does 'circumvention' mean, and what is the on-the-ground reality in the countries that are so often associated with this activity? Host Kinga Redlowska, Head of CFCS Europe, is joined by Carl Schreck, investigative journalist at Radio Free Europe, and Olivia Allison, CFCS Associate Fellow, to discuss the challenge of tackling sanctions circumvention and evasion.
Dec 15, 2023 • 33min
The Impact of Sanctions on Russia
While the tempo of Russia sanctions issuance has dropped off, policymakers and diplomats are working to boost their effectiveness. But what does 'sanctions effectiveness' mean and how can we measure it? And are sanctions serving their purpose to undermine the Russian war machine? Host Kinga Redlowska, Head of CFCS Europe, is joined by Elina Ribakova, Non-resident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, and Timothy Ash, Senior EM Sovereign Strategist, BlueBay Asset Management, to discuss the challenge of assessing the effectiveness and impact of sanctions on Russia.
Dec 1, 2023 • 34min
Crypto Risk Assessed
Those in the private sector can often feel stuck between policymakers who fear cryptocurrencies are undermining their carefully built regulatory fortifications, and the online world of dark markets beyond those regulatory walls. Host Tom Keatinge is joined by co-author Allison Owen, CFCS Associate Fellow, and Rodrigo Peiteado, Senior Manager of Digital Asset investigations at BVNK, to discuss a new virtual asset risk assessment guide for the private sector published by the CFCS: Institutional Virtual Asset Service Providers and Virtual Assets Risk Assessment Guide | Royal United Services Institute (rusi.org)
Nov 17, 2023 • 30min
Behind the Scenes of EU Sanctions Diplomacy
Effective implementation of sanctions requires cooperation with partners around the globe. Host Tom Keatinge, Director of CFCS at RUSI, sat down with EU Sanctions Envoy David O'Sullivan in Brussels to explore the EU's approach to negotiations with third countries to clamp down on the circumvention of sanctions, emphasise the importance of data in sanctions diplomacy and stress the role of the private sector in making sanctions effective.
