In trust we share: The politics of financial intelligence sharing

Abstract

Financial transactions data are increasingly considered valuable in the context of security threats, yet they are particularly privacy sensitive. At present, 166 Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) worldwide are able to share financial intelligence via the Egmont Group, their joint platform. This paper analyses the politics and practices of transnational financial intelligence sharing, with a particular emphasis on the Egmont Group. We draw on literatures at the intersection between political economy and financial security to analyse how FIU practitioners rely on what we call ‘circuits of trust’ that enable them to engage in a politics of data-sharing. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and participant observation, we examine three practices: the role of trust in navigating the ‘legal grey zone’ in which FIU data are shared; the way in which trust circuits make intelligence sharing possible; and the implicit notions of (un)trustworthiness at work when FIUs share intelligence, leading to inclusion and exclusion. We aim to push forward the conversation about economic trust practices by observing how the circuit of trust operates in everyday practice, making the sharing of financial intelligence (im)possible.