In 2022 the EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) 1 has been published. This annual document produced by Europol presents figures, major developments and trends pertaining to the terrorism situation in the EU in 2021.
According to data provided by Member States, out of the 388 arrests for terrorism-related offences in 2021, 14 were linked to the financing of terrorism. Terrorist organisations, like the criminal ones, need financial and material resourced to carry out their activities and maintain their organisation.
The traditional banking system remains one of the first choices through which terrorist and extremist groups transfer funds. Other ways of payment also include the use of platforms such as Wise and Paypal; money transfer services, such as MoneyGram and Western Union; informal value transfer systems (IVTS), such as hawala; the use of digital currency and cryptocurrency.
There are multiple legal sources of funding from lawful means:
- Individual donations remain one of the primary means of funding.
- Fundraising events among members and sympathisers, or via bank transfers.
- Non-profit organisations to collect donations under the guise of charitable collections.
- Foundations that openly collect funds for FTFs and their families in conflict zones.
- Crowdfunding websites reaching a large number of donors and quickly raising considerable amounts of money.
- Commercial activities such as organising concerts and merchandising.
- Online sale of merchandise, for example band t-shirts and CDs.
Other ways of collecting funds come from illegal sources:
- Criminal activity such as the distribution and sale of drugs, robberies, extortions and trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation.
- Tax fraud and tax evasion, social benefit fraud and insurance and loan fraud.
This is why, as terrorist groups require funds to maintain their organisation, it is essential to dismantle their financial networks in order to weaken their activity and operational capacity, and consequently, to try to prevent future attacks.