Combatting the Financing of Terrorism or ‘CFT’ are a set of procedures deployed by obliged entities to ensure that the financial system and intermediaries are not used to facilitate the funding of terrorist acts and groups.
Terrorist groups need funding to recruit and support members, plan operations and have a logistics hub. By having proper CFT procedures in place the integrity of the financial system can be maintained. CFT is often deployed in risk management processes alongside Anti-Money Laundering procedures. Many sanctioned entities and individuals are on the OFAC list due to being involved in terrorist financing.
CFT has become a priority in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks carried out against the USA. Various entities may fall into the category of terrorist financiers, from individual actors on their funding attacks, complex network cells of a designated terrorist organization and hostile state actors operating against another sovereign state may be branded terrorist financiers by the latter.
CFT seeks to identify, disrupt and stop the flow of funds to the aiding of terror groups and individuals by deploying various tracing methodologies.
