Financial crimes pose the biggest threat to the economy and societal security across the countries as well as to the global security and economy. They undermine the foundations on which financial transactions are based, the value of currencies, the equivalent balance of precious metals and the currency basket system. This system is adopted by several countries as a consideration for the issuance of currency and the volume of liquidity. Despite the multiple risks of financial crimes, their gravity has recently increased as a result of the recent development in the world of crime following the spread of cryptocurrencies, virtual transfers, and the large-scale uses of digital technology and algorithms in the cyber world. Accordingly, these crimes have taken new, more serious twistsand greatly aggravated the situation over the last few years at record rates. Financial crimes are numerous, including theft, fraud, deception, extortion, corruption, money laundering and drug trafficking. These crimes are described in Interpol's reports as illegal means to earn money in large amounts which are likely to be used in other more dangerous and damaging crimes. 

Unfortunately, many types of these crimes are perpetrated usingambiguous means away from the spotlight and through fictitious and fake operations, and sometimes with large-scale complicity among those involved. This creates difficulty in prosecuting them with the required speed and response due to the development of financial crime methods through modern communication media, and the use of technical and symboliccamouflage and encryption, making it more difficult to pursue.Those who carry out this type of financial fraud are not ordinary criminals who are driven by poverty or low education levels and ignorance of the consequences. Those who currently commit financial crimes are, in most cases, educated individuals and groups from the middle-class or higher who follow the movement of money, and have the ability to spot loopholes and have criminal skill in circumventing laws, forgery and covering the tracks of their criminal operations. They are usually referred to in journalism literature as "white collar" persons.

Issues like global terrorism, drug trafficking, illegal immigration and human trafficking have cast a negative shadow on the fight against financial crimes, and increased the risks of illegalfinancial transfers from one unknown place to another through fraud and extortion. Financial crimes have become a direct threat to international security in addition to their direct impact on countries' economies and their budgets. They have a negative impact on financial transactions, freedom of global trade, and transparency of financial transactions, which constitute an essential part of the global economic movement.

Financial crimes are often committed through large-scale operations that infiltrate through many systems. Groups and networks working in harmony in distant countries and different continents get involved through suspicious transfers that transcend the limits of time and space. This gives another dimension of the seriousness of these crimes and makes prosecuting their perpetrators a tall order. Individuals and groups inside and outside state agencies may get involved in these crimes, many of which are perpetrated through private and governmental banks. Some of these criminal operations appear to be legitimate transactions taking place through official banks in line with applicable laws. But in fact, they exploit loopholes in laws, regulations and facilities which some countries and financial institutions put in place to facilitate investment or encourage freedom of financial transactions. Such opportunities are usually offered to attract capital and provide saving opportunities and other facilities provided by competing banks. So, governments and banks must take more stringent precautionary measures and remedial reviews to fill these gaps, and tighten control over money transfers, especially those involving huge sums, which can be used in other more dangerous crimes such as terrorism, human trafficking, organized crime and drug trafficking.

The gravity of financial crime at the country and global level cannot be underestimated. They may entail dire economic and social impacts and long-term damage. They are also directly linked, as we have mentioned, to terrorism, violence, extremism and organized crime. For the same reasons, it is an urgent and vital duty to have regional, international and international coordination among countries, global bodies and regional organizations to work on exchanging information, data and experiences. The aim of this should be to cooperate in following up and prosecuting these crimes, and proposing national and international legislations that would tighten control over networks operating in cross-border financial crimes. This requires building the expertise and capabilities of police and justice agencies working in the field of law enforcement in all countries.

We at Interpol feel the scale of our role in this field. We work with a strategy that combines technical support and capacity building for member states and informing their police, customs and control authorities, immigration departments and law enforcement agencies of the latest data on innovative criminal methods in this field. Through this strategy, we can eliminate lots of chances which perpetrators of financial crimes may have. 

The Interpol also pays more and more attention to the issue of cryptocurrencies and money laundering. The organization hasperiodic activities and global partnerships in this field. It calls for building partnerships between the public and private sectors to combat financial crimes through concerted efforts. Once international, regional and internationalist cooperation effortsare completed to confront this kind of serious crime, we will be able to make criminals' endeavors more difficult to achieve.

Major General Dr Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Inspector-General of the Ministry of Interior