Policing through misunderstanding: insights from the configuration of financial policing

Amicelle, Anthony

doi:10.1007/s10611-017-9752-9

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…For transactions to be transportable amongst security actors, de Goede observes, they 'need to be inscribed in dossiers, analysed, debated and modelled, in order to be rendered intelligible and valid as security facts' (de Goede 2018, p. 32). Amicelle studied a part of this chain, from the bank to the FIU, and observed how a shared (but diversely understood) lexicon enables financial security actors to escape the confines of their own institutional embedment and to cooperate across them (Amicelle 2017). And Bosma, conducting ethnographic research within a major Dutch bank, focused on what she calls 'sites of experimentation', where new digital security technologies raise ethical and practical dilemmas challenging security practitioners (Bosma 2020, p. 194).…”

Section: Engaging In 'Flat Ir'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flattening the international: producing financial intelligence through a platform

Lagerwaard

2020

Critical Studies on Security

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This paper engages in 'flat' International Relations (IR). Inspired by Actor-Network Theory (ANT), it studies how geographically dispersed security actors produce shared understandings of financial intelligence on the EU-FIU Platform, a European Commission expert group. Studying the Platform enables empirical observation of how 'the international' is not a natural given nor a static analytical framework, but instead is actively made to exist in everyday practice, entailing numerous human and nonhuman actors. Engaging the Platform with a flat ontology allows the significance of materiality to be drawn out and key IR concerns such as power and governance to be readdressed. The paper examines the publicly accessible minutes of the EU-FIU Platform meetings and traces the development of the phrase 'for intelligence purposes', demonstrating both its interpretive flexibility, allowing actors to cooperate across heterogeneous understandings, and its flexible scalability, allowing actors to assign and navigate several scales concurrently.

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Section: Engaging In 'Flat Ir'mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flattening the international: producing financial intelligence through a platform

Lagerwaard

2020

Critical Studies on Security

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“…To leverage, in this context, would mean to gain 'increased power of action' or to 'gain advantage' through the use of a lever, understood as a 'simple machine.' 12 The notion of leveraging recognises that critique is immanent to the specific security practice it is seizing upon. Says Foucault, in his emphasis on the specificity of critique:…”

Section: Following and Leveragingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engagement all the way down

Goede

2020

Critical Studies on Security

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This paper asks about the practices and forms of critique afforded at the intersection between Science-and-Technology Studies and the critical study of security politics, by drawing on the work of Isabelle Stengers. Can engagements with practice generate effective forms of critique? How does the attention to materialities and the fine-grained analysis of technical practices, that typically accompany STS-inspired research, feed into ways of practicing critique? How can the analytical attention to 'little security nothings' be translated into critical agendas? In addressing these questions, Belgian philosopher Isabelle Stengers serves as an inspiration, not just for her philosophical writing on the situated nature of critical thinking, but also for her own experimental politics and engagement. A key message of the paper is that critical practice is "engagement all the way down." The article thinks through the ways in which the work of Stengers and her companions can be put into practice in qualitative critical security research. It builds on Foucault's rejection of the separation between theoretical, universalist knowledge on the one hand, and practical knowledge on the other. It emphasises the processual, uncertain and practical aspects of critical thinking. It identifies the notions of following, leveraging, joined risks and paying attention as key, concrete pathways of engaged critique.

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“…However, little is known about the exact role that the FIU plays in the wider financial surveillance system. There are notable exceptions of studies that investigate how banks and FIUs collaborate (Amicelle, 2017a), how FIUs collaborate at a European level and the legislative framework in which this happens (respectively Lagerwaard, 2020; Mouzakiti, 2020) and how FIUs exchange intelligence at an international level (Amicelle and Chaudieu, 2018), but, as far as I know, there is no detailed study of the daily practices of a single FIU. In addition, literature on surveillance pays little attention to this form of financial surveillance.…”

Section: Introduction: Financial Intelligence Unit-the Netherlandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Financial surveillance and the role of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in the Netherlands

Lagerwaard

2022

JMLC

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Purpose In 2019, FIU-the Netherlands celebrated its 25th anniversary. This study takes the occasion to reflect on the role of the FIU in financial surveillance and to describe its core practices of collecting, analysing and disseminating financial intelligence. Design/methodology/approach Because FIU practices are often secret and its transaction data classified as state secrets, the FIU’s daily operational activities remain obscure. Drawing on interviews, public reports and an online training course, this study encircles secrecy and offers a fine-grained analysis of the FIU's core activities. Findings The article finds that the FIU plays a pivotal role in financial surveillance because it can operate at various intersections. An FIU operates at the intersection of finance and security, in between the public and private sector and at the national and international domain. This pivotal role makes the FIU indispensable in the surveillance of payment systems and spending behavior. Social implications The article poses that the desirability and effectiveness of financial surveillance has to date not received sufficient consideration, while it affects (the privacy of) anyone with a bank account. The article asks: is it ethically justifiable that transaction information is declared suspect, investigated, and shared nationally and internationally, without the individual or entity concerned officially being notified and legally named a suspect? Originality/value This case-study is not only relevant for the study of finance/security, AML/CFT and financial surveillance, but also to policy makers and the broader public who merit an understanding of how their financial behaviour is being surveilled.

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Policing through misunderstanding: insights from the configuration of financial policing

Cited by 12 publications

References 27 publications

Flattening the international: producing financial intelligence through a platform

Flattening the international: producing financial intelligence through a platform

Engagement all the way down

Financial surveillance and the role of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in the Netherlands

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