Threat Assessment and Priorities in Fighting FC & ML/TF/PF
Prioritizing major financial crimes for global attention. Establishes a ranking of key financial crimes based on harm, financial impact, and global relevance. The model is intended for use by governments and international organizations to align threat responses.
About
Financial crime is a multifaceted threat comprising over 20 major headline offences—each of which constitutes a predicate offence to money laundering. These include fraud, corruption, drug trafficking, environmental crimes, cyber-enabled crime, tax evasion, sanctions evasion, and terrorist financing, among others. However, not all financial crimes carry equal weight in terms of societal harm, financial impact, or strategic importance.
Recognising the need to prioritise effectively, the Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) undertook a consultation with its diverse network of stakeholders across the public and private sectors, as well as civil society. The result is a structured Threat Prioritisation Model aimed at enabling clearer focus, resource allocation, and policy targeting both globally and within countries.
This prioritisation considers five key criteria:
Volume of Criminal Proceeds/Profits: The estimated monetary scale of each offence.
Harm to Victims: The qualitative and quantitative societal, economic, and emotional damage inflicted.
Cost to Societies: Including destabilisation, erosion of public trust, and development setbacks.
Political Resonance: Public and political demand for urgent response.
Existence of a Political Mandate: Whether there is formalised support for action at a national or international level.
Key Objectives of the Model:
Serve as a global framework to identify Very High, High, Medium, or Low priority crimes based on their composite score.
Enable countries to tailor and communicate their own domestic threat prioritisation strategies.
Provide international organisations—such as FATF, Interpol, UNODC, and Egmont—with a comparative foundation for planning and cooperation.
Help define leadership responsibilities between public-sector law enforcement and private-sector regulated entities for each crime type.
Key Deliverable:
A published Threat Prioritisation Matrix, accompanied by an explanatory report outlining methodology, scoring rationale, and practical applications. The matrix will be updated periodically to reflect new data, trends, and threat evolution.