Government Pledges To Protect Charities From Abuse

The government has pledged an extra million pounds to help the charity sector tackle exploitation by terrorists as it sharpens efforts to tackle money laundering and financial crime.

The new anti-money laundering and terrorist finance strategy will also put forward stronger measures to combat the abuse of money service businesses such as replacing the current registration scheme with a licensing system.

The Treasury said it would also take steps to develop data-sharing between public and private authorities and improve the pooling of intelligence between government bodies.

In addition it calls for fresh international action to identify and tackle the most serious financial threats to international security.

“We know that finance is the lifeblood of terrorist operations,” Treasury minister Ed Balls will say on Wednesday, according to his office. That is why this strategy builds up the actions we have already taken and sets out new financial measures, supported by UK-sponsored international standards, to deter crime and terrorism; detect it when it happens, disrupt those responsible and hold them to account.”