The Transnational Configuration of Financial Intelligence

• In Event: New Directions in Transnational and Organized Crime Research

Abstract

The proposed paper is focused on the United States Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP). It takes stock of the wide range of controversies surrounding this security-focused program with dataveillance capabilities to fight against international terrorism. First, we aim to show how the TFTP is based on the transnational exchange of financial (personal) data between a European commercial company (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication – SWIFT) and the US Treasury Department. We analyze how the massive collection and use of financial intelligence destabilize the principle of equality between sovereign entities in international relations. Then, we argue that the TFTP has the critical effect of shifting financial information-sharing practices from the judicial framework into the preemptive context. The paper questions the TFTP-related conception of ‘mass’ intelligence through large-scale financial databases and transnational communication of bulk data in the name of ‘targeted’ surveillance.

Author

• Anthony Amicelle, Université de Montréal