PARIS: More than 70 countries committed on Thursday to bolster efforts in the fight against terrorism financing associated with the militant Islamic State group and Al Qaeda.

Participants at an international conference in Paris agreed to “fully criminalise” terror financing through effective and proportionate sanctions “even in the absence of a link to a specific terrorist act.” The two-day event was convened by French President Emmanuel Macron to coordinate efforts to reduce the terror threat in the long-term.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, IMF chief Christine Lagarde, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani were all present.

Macron, who has returned to France from a state visit to the United States, is expected to close the conference later with a call for the necessity for multilateral action.

Daniel Lewis, executive secretary of the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force, said he is hoping that words will be put into action.

“When we have information for example the UN list of individuals and entities financing terrorism we need to make sure measures like asset freezing are implemented fully and quickly,” Lewis said.

Participants called for better information-sharing between intelligence services, law enforcement, financial businesses and the technology industry. They also agreed to improve the traceability of funds going to non-governmental organisations and charity associations.

Participants included countries that have accused each other of funding terrorism, notably in the Persian Gulf.

France has pushed for international coordination and more transparency in financial transactions. But it has recognised how sensitive the issue is, and saw the conference as a first step for coordinated action.

The French organisers noted that IS military defeats on the ground have not prevented the group from pursuing its terrorist activities, along with Al Qaeda especially in unstable regions of Afghanistan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Yemen, Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa.

Terror groups don’t only rely on the cash economy they’re using increasingly hard-to-track tools like prepaid cards, online wallets and crowdfunding operations.

The IS group has also invested in businesses and real estate to ensure its financing. IS revenues alone were estimated at $2.5 billion between 2014 and 2016, according to the French president’s office.

Though most of the attacks in Western countries do not cost a lot of money, a French official said terror groups “behave like big organisations” in that it “costs a lot to recruit, train, equip people and spread propaganda.” The official was speaking anonymously under the presidency’s customary practice.

The French counter-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins told FranceInfo radio that IS uses micro-financing techniques to collect a great number of small amounts of money.

Work with the financial intelligence unit helped identify 416 people in France who have donated money to the IS group over the last two years, he said.

Money, he said, went to “320 collectors mostly based in Turkey and Lebanon from whom jihadis in Iraq and Syria could receive funds.” Funding to extremist groups in the Middle East once flowed freely across the region’s informal money-transfer shops and in donations made in mosques when travelling clerics issued special appeals during sermons.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018