Terror finance fight: Banks trained to follow terrorist cash trail

BANK and charity workers will be trained up to be the eyes and ears of the government in a bid to catch terror suspects and money launderers.

BANK and charity workers will be enlisted as financial intelligence operatives in the frontline fight against terror, to help stop attacks before they’re even launched.

With just a small amount of money needed for a devastating assault, the federal government’s financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC will train up employees in sectors with constant money movement to look out for suspicious transactions.

The inaugural Financial Analyst Intelligence Course launched in Melbourne this week.

“The Bali bombings, which killed over 200 people, were financed by $US70,000 ($A92,000). In the scheme of the global financial system that is a tiny amount of money,” federal justice minister Michael Keenan told the Herald Sun.

“But that amount allowed them to explode those bombs.”

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Police used an explosives device detector at the home of an accused terror suspect in Melbourne. Picture: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

Course participants will learn about crime types such as professional money laundering, organised crime, terrorist groups and terrorism financing, as well as misuse of cryptocurrencies.

The federal government hopes the course, which will also be rolled out in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra next year, will help people in industry spot the warning signs of terror supporters moving money around.

“Terrorists and organised criminals can use very complex methodology,” Mr Keenan said.

“The government can share this information with our private sector partners. There is no way the government can do this job by ourselves.

“We have to look for the danger signs. Where there is movements of money, looking to finance terror, we have to be looking at small amounts.”

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Flinders St Station last year, on the same day police thwarted an alleged terror plot. Picture: David Geraghty/The Australian

The course, which lasts two weeks, welcomed employees from ANZ, NAB and the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission as well as the Indonesian Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

MoneyGram, ANZ, Crown Casino, Betfair and The Star Casino in Sydney have all provided information and presenters.

The course also covers collecting and collating financial data and information, using financial analytical tools and techniques to make deductions and judgments and identifying money laundering and terrorism financing patterns, trends, and risks.

Participants will also learn about banking, remittance and gambling sectors as well as develop knowledge of professional money launderers, terrorist groups and terror financing.

“Since we raised the terror threat level in 2014 we have stopped 13 attacks, the most recent one being the attempted downing of the Etihad jet,” Mr Keenan said.

“Last year we stopped the Federation Square Christmas plot. That would have been shooters, bombs, it would have been the equivalent of the 2015 Paris attacks in Melbourne.

“The challenge has never been greater. Part of the intelligence is the financial intelligence.

“We get an enormous amount of information about people doing the wrong thing.”

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@davidhurleyHS