How Efforts To Counter Terrorist Financing Have Evolved Since 9/11

Since 9/11, countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) has been a focus of U.S. and international security policy, and an evolving feature of the regulatory and risk environment for authorities and the private sector. In the wake of those terrorist attacks, the U.S. government led an aggressive effort to use all elements of national power to prevent further attacks and to disrupt and dismantle terrorist networks. The tools of economic coercion, financial regulation, and risk management were deployed deliberately to undermine the ability of terrorist actors to access capital and leverage the financial system. These measures ultimately were seen as a fundamental element of a preventative paradigm to disrupt terrorist plots, networks, and alliances—and their global reach.