And now for something completely different at the Royal Institution - as Northumbria University academic takes inspiration from Monty Python for talk

Northumbria University, Newcastle, academic Professor Jackie Harvey takes a slightly irreverent look at anti money laundering efforts as she addresses the Royal Institution (Ri) Patrons Club.

The Professor of Financial Management and Director of Business Research at Newcastle Business School, presented her talk entitled: ‘Anti-Money Laundering: Cost effective compliance or costly circus’ to the world-famous London club earlier this month.Derived from a book chapter:  The Monty Python Flying Circus of Money Laundering and the Question of Proportionality that is co-authored with Emeritus Professor Petrus van Duyne and Dr Liliya Gelemerova, the talk explored the approach to anti money laundering (AML), mapping its evolution from the US and the war on drugs in the early 1980s through to the establishment of the inter-governmental Financial Action Task Force and global regulatory framework that is in place today. 

The presentation unpicked the figures behind the threat narrative, the lack of clarity over what is or is not being counted, examined the economic and legal justifications and concluded with an overview of the reality of compliance for both individual institutions and countries. 

Professor Harvey said: “Consistent with the surreal comedy that was the trade-mark of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus, we observed, in our review of Mutual Evaluation Reports (one of the cornerstones of the AML effort) statements such as for Portugal ‘It is not possible to assess the effectiveness of freezing of terrorist funds as no funds have been identified for freezing action’ (so only partially compliant). Or the case of Denmark: “The criminalization of the financing of terrorism by Denmark is fully compliant, but Greenland and the Faroe Islands have not yet adequately criminalized the financing of terrorism, terrorists and terrorist organizations.” So the rating is reduced to ‘Partly Compliant’ -irrespective of the extremely limited potential for criminal or terrorist infiltration of the small economies of either Greenland (population 56,000) or of the Faroes (population 49,000).

“Of course beneath the obvious humour this is a hugely challenging and costly problem for society, and I am extremely honoured to have been invited to speak at the Ri, and I hope my talk was insightful and thought provoking for them.”

The Ri was founded in 1799 as an independent charity set up to promote and communicate science to the general public, and to inspire future generations of thinkers and inventors. Eminent members of the past have included Michael Faraday and Sir Humphry Davy.

For more information on the RI Patrons Club events visit http://www.rigb.org/globals/join-support/become-an-ri-patron/ri-patron-events