What Do We Know About Self-Finance Terrorism?

Abstract: The landscape of terrorist financing has transformed owing to the self-starter phenomenon, characteristics of terrorist organizations, self-funded terrorism, and weapons of choice. On a different note, nationally and internationally, financial institutions still rely on traditional counterterrorist financing policies. These policies against the financing of terrorism were drafted as a result of the 9/11 attacks to identify large, complex attacks financed through the international financial system. Unfortunately, the policies have proven to be redundant in tracing the financial footprint of small cells and lone actors – such groups use little to no money to fund their activities. So far, the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism policies have been studied from their ability to trigger suspicious reports and cost-of-compliance perspectives, but not from the perspective that seeks to answer why the existing system is insufficient at detecting self-funded terrorism.