Brett Christophers by Money & Finance After the Crisis

Author:Money & Finance After the Crisis [Inconnu(e)]
Language: fra
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2020-05-02T05:20:01.724000+00:00

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b a n k s i n t h e f r o n t l i n e

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strategic outcomes of the pursuit of terrorism financing, I am not neces-

sarily arguing that policies have hidden agendas that deviate from their

stated objective. On the contrary, it is the cumulative effect of the

finance‐security assemblage doing ‘exactly what it says on the cover’

that, taken together, produce these effects (Christophers 2012). This is

what Jane Bennett (2005, p. 447) calls the agency of assemblages: ‘the

distinctive efficacy of a working whole made up, variously, of somatic,

technological, cultural, and atmospheric elements. Because each member‐

actant maintains an energetic pulse slightly “off” from that exuded by

the assemblage, such assemblages are never fixed blocks but open‐ended

wholes.’ Put differently, outcomes are conceived as ‘unstable cascade’

rather than as causal effects (Bennett 2005, p. 457; also De Goede 2012:

chapter 2).

The transnational landscape of laws, institutions, treaties and private

initiatives that play a role in fighting terrorism financing, is complex, not

necessarily transparent, and pulling in different directions. Considerable

tensions, gaps and disjunctures persist within it, problematizing (too)

coherent and powerful renditions of US hegemonic power or homoge-

nous neoliberalism (e.g., Bennett 2010). In the war on terrorism

financing, these tensions are important and long‐standing. For example,

within this regulatory complex a struggle persists over whether efforts

should concentrate on freezing monies (with all its attendant juridical

problems) or on following monies (deploying sophisticated financial

data analysis to rendering visible suspect networks). A related

tension – explored below – concerns the contingency of commercial

opportunities made possible with fighting terrorism financing. Cleary, a

strong transnational policy agenda to reregulate transnational banks

and impose substantial compliance duties and fines is broadly under-

stood as restricting the power of capital (rather than fostering it). At the

same time however, important opportunities are emerging for (US‐based)

firms and financial data mining software companies.

The HSBC Settlement

In 2012, British‐headquartered bank HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai

Banking Corporation) concluded a settlement with US authorities,

including the Department of Justice and the Office of Foreign Assets

Control (OFAC), for 1.9 billion US$. The agreement followed a

protracted investigation by the US Senate Committee on Homeland

Security and Governmental Affairs into alleged money laundering and

terrorist finance abuses at HSBC, and settled claims that the bank delib-

erately evaded US controls and sanctions. Under the terms of the

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