News

19 September 2007
SCOTTISH POLICE AND FINANCIAL SECTOR JOIN TOGETHER TO TACKLE EMERGING THREATS

Scotland’s banks and other financial institutions have joined forces with police specialist financial investigators to discuss the emerging threats posed by serious organised crime to the UK financial sector. 

Delegates attending the fourth annual Scottish Financial Crime Group (SFCG) conference       at Dunblane Hydro Hotel in Dunblane on Thursday and Friday, September 20-21, will be provided with the latest assessment of organised financial crime and discuss the methods used by these highly sophisticated criminals.

The SFCG brings together specialist investigators from the Scottish Police Service, with their counterparts within the Scottish banking industry and the wider financial sector, to monitor developing crime trends and implement specialist tactics to disrupt criminal activity and protect financial institutions and their customers. 

The conference will be opened by Scotland’s Solicitor General, Frank Mulholland, QC, with delegates receiving presentations from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), and various industry experts involved in preventing and investigating a wide variety of financial crime. 

Delegates will participate in workshops based on a recent successful SCDEA criminal investigation and will also hear the outcome of ongoing research that, for the first time, explores the structure of organised criminal networks operating in Scotland and discusses the threats posed to the legitimate economy.   

Strathclyde Police Assistant Chief Constable John L.S. Malcolm, Secretary of the ACPOS Crime Business Area and SFCG Chair, said, “The SFCG plays a key role in enhancing the links between the police and the financial sector to ensure that we have excellent co-ordination across organisations in meeting the threats from serious organised crime. This conference will play an important part in defining the core financial crime issues affecting both the police and the financial sector going forward.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Gavin Robertson, SCDEA Crime Co-ordinator, said,

“We are faced with an endless appetite by serious organised criminals to achieve profit whatever the cost to society. Through the SFCG, we are able to cement further the already strong relationship between law enforcement and the Scottish financial community, and help officers dismantle organised crime which creates misery for so many of our communities.”

Simon Thompson, Executive-in-Charge, Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers, said,

“The threats posed to the financial sector by serious organised crime are constantly evolving.  Through the SFCG, individual institutions can discuss current and emerging threats with our partners in law enforcement and together devise solutions and share best practice. 

“The group plays a significant part in our ongoing work to manage these risks, protecting our customers and the wider economy as a whole,” he concluded.   “This conference, in particular, is a central part in this process.”