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This paper explores the historical aspects of customer due diligence and related anti-money laundering measures in South Africa. Customer due diligence measures are usually employed to ensure that financial institutions know their customers well by assessing them against the possible risks they might pose such as fraud, money laundering, Ponzi schemes and terrorist financing. Accordingly, customer due diligence measures enable banks and other financial institutions to assess their customers before they conclude any transactions with them. Customer due diligence measures that are utilised in South Africa include identification and verification of customer identity, keeping records of transactions concluded between customers and financial institutions, ongoing monitoring of customer account activities, reporting unusual and suspicious transactions and risk assessment programmes. The Financial Intelligence Centre Act 38 of 2001 (FICA) as amended by the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Act 1 of 2017 (Amendment Act) is the primary statute that provides for the adoption and use of customer due diligence measures to detect and combat money laundering in South Africa. Prior to the enactment of the FICA, several other statutes were enacted in a bid to prohibit money laundering in South Africa. Against this background, the article provides a historical overview analysis of these statutes to, inter alia, explore their adequacy and examine whether they consistently complied with the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations on the regulation of money laundering.

The paper provides an overview analysis of the historical aspects of the regulation and use of customer due diligence to combat money laundering in South Africa. In this regard, a qualitative research method as well as the doctrinal research method are used.

It is hoped that policymakers and other relevant persons will adopt the recommendations provided in the paper to enhance the curbing of money laundering in South Africa.

The paper does not provide empirical research.

The paper is useful to all policymakers, lawyers, law students and regulatory bodies, especially, in South Africa.

The paper advocates for the use of customer due diligence measures to curb money laundering in the South African financial markets and financial institutions.

The paper is original research on the South African anti-money laundering regime and the use of customer due diligence measures to curb money laundering in South Africa.

This paper aims to investigate the moderated-mediation roles of perception of police response to crime and digital interclass coalition against crime between fear of terrorist attacks and psychological distress among residents of Tema Metropolis in Ghana.

A cluster sampling technique was used in the selection of 577 residents who answered questions on fear of terrorism, perception of police response to crime, digital interclass coalition against crime and psychological distress. The study used regression analysis to assess the hypothesized paths.

The findings show that digital interclass coalition against crime moderates the partially mediated relationship between perception of police response to crime and residents’ psychological distress.

The study is limited in scope by the generalization of its findings, as it was restricted to only residents of Tema Metropolis in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana.

This research is one of the first in criminal psychology to explore the relevance of police-public engagement in averting large-scale crime in an emerging economy.

Cyber terrorism poses a serious technology risk to businesses and the economies they operate in. Cyber terrorism is a digital attack on computers, networks or digital information systems, carried out to coerce people or governments to further the social or political objectives of the attacker. Cyber terrorism is costly in terms of impaired operations and damaged assets. Cyber terrorism harms a firm’s reputation, thereby negatively affecting a firm’s stock market valuation. This poses grave worries to company management, financial analysts, creditors and investors. This study aims to evaluate the effect of cyber terrorism on the market value of publicly traded firms.

Financial information was obtained on business firms that were featured in news stories as targets of cyber terrorism. The firm’s stock price was recorded for 1, 3 and 7 days before and after the news article. Percentage changes in the firm’s stock price were compared to percentage changes in the Dow Jones Index to ascertain whether the firm’s stock price went up or down matching the market overall.

Results indicate that stock prices are significantly negatively affected by news of cyber terrorist attacks on companies. In all three time periods after the cyber terrorist attack, there was a significant negative decline in the stock value relative to the Dow Jones Index. Thus, the market valuation of the firm is damaged. As a result, the shareholders and institutions are financially damaged. Furthermore, exposed system vulnerability may lead to loss of business from consumers who have reduced confidence in the firm’s operations.

This paper examines the risks posed by cyber terrorism, including its impact on individual business firms, which in turn affect entire national economic systems. This makes clear the high value of cybersecurity in safeguarding computer systems. Taking steps to avoid being a victim of cyber terrorism is an important aspect of cybersecurity. Preventative steps are normally far less costly than rebuilding an information system after a cyber terrorist attack.

This study is original in examining the effect of cyber terrorism on the stock value of a company.

The objective of this paper is to determine the impact of terrorism on the sustainability of the development of West African countries, highlighting the role and interactions of income inequality and the level of education in this relationship for the period 2000–2019.

The appropriate tests indicated that the dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) model is the most suited to analyze the terrorism phenomenon in the study area.

The results confirm the critical challenge to sustain economic development in a context marked by a high risk of terrorist attacks. Fortunately, the negative effect of terrorism on economic development is not a fatality. Ways do exist to limit the magnitude of the phenomenon impacts since the results also revealed that countries with higher percentages of educated people experience a lower magnitude of terrorism impact. Similarly, reducing inequalities is another way of controlling the magnitude of terrorism's impact on development sustainability.

This paper aims to contribute to the economic literature on the economic effects of terrorism in two main ways. First, to the author's knowledge, this is the first attempt to establish terrorism implications in terms of development sustainability in the ECOWAS region. The second contribution is that the author tries to find an empirical validation of the hypothesis according to which an increase in the level of education and improvement in income distribution could reduce the impact of terrorism on development sustainability.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2022-0565.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework and strong arguments with an intent to examine the stock market variables (predictors) indicating the money laundering (ML) and terrorism financing (FT) proceeds.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of ML/FT through the stock market across developed, developing and emerging jurisdictions, sheds light on the existing literature and critically evaluates the gap in the relevant studies. Moving forward, this paper develops the conceptual framework and formulates hypotheses to explore the empirical relationship.

This paper advocates and finds a basis to carry out much-needed empirical research between the ML/FT and stock market keeping in view the growing criminal cases in the developing countries. This paper suggests mining proxies from the publically available stock market data and the results of existing seminal research as variables of the study. These data and results carry information about the ML determinants. After developing hypothetical research providing concepts, this paper also finds that using a suitable methodology, preferable Bayesian logistic and linear regression models, it is possible to find the typologies and factors that can indicate and endorse the use of the stock market for ML/FT. Broadly, it is found that the significance of this study will be two-pronged: empirical development and policy implications.

This paper mainly focuses on the developing region, a newly emerging market and, peculiarly, a grey-listed region by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

In light of the existing literature and to the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this study will bring into focus the new age of the action research on the ML regime in the securities markets of the developing countries, hence, the emerging markets. Moreover, this research shall have a sheer significance for the policy measures on FATF recommendations on ML and FT, especially for the countries listed as “grey”.

The research based on comprehensive review will help in controlling the social behaviours aiding the proceeds of ML.

This research is extremely novel to the best of the researcher's knowledge.

The purpose of the study is to show that divergent perceptions among regulators, the regulated and the associated regulatory bodies across multiple jurisdictions regarding the nature and functionality of cryptocurrencies hamper the development of a more comprehensive and coherent regulatory framework in curbing crimes and other related risks associated with cryptocurrencies.

The study has used a descriptive doctrinal legal research method to investigate and understand the insights of existing laws and regulations in four selected jurisdictions concerning cryptocurrencies and how these laws could be further improved and developed to reduce crypto-related crimes. Furthermore, the study has also used a comparative research method to conceptualize the contours of the new legal discourse emerging from cryptocurrencies to adopt and implement a sound regulatory framework.

The study illustrated that divergent regulatory treatment among different jurisdictions might suffocate novel digital innovations such as cryptocurrency. These fragmented regulatory approaches by various jurisdictions question the sustainability of the present national legislation adopted to regulate cryptocurrencies. Looking into other jurisdictional developments in regulating cryptocurrencies, it is apparent that a concerted regulatory approach is needed to minimize the abuse of this innovation.

The study has implications for regulators and policymakers to review the current regulatory framework for regulating cryptocurrencies to prevent regulatory arbitrage. The divergent legislative measures concerning cryptocurrency among different jurisdictions question the sustainability of these legislative initiatives, considering the evolving and borderless nature of cryptocurrency. Therefore, this paper will help regulators to consider the present legislative gaps in establishing a common global regulatory approach in the crypto sphere.

The study contributes to the existing body of literature by examining the regulatory frameworks of four jurisdictions, namely, the USA, Canada, China and the EU, related to cryptocurrencies, with a discussion on the development of cryptocurrencies-related laws among these four jurisdictions and their sustainability in curbing crimes in the Darknet.

The purpose of this study is to compare violent and non-violent extremists in terms of their age when they first perpetrate an extremist act, and to understand how this relates to other factors underlying extremist behaviours. While the end goal of many extremists may be functionally similar, the pathways into extremism vary, and the literature has demonstrated that a “one-size-fits-all” explanation does not exist. Motivational drivers are complex and dynamic; therefore, attempting to identify a terrorist “profile” has limited applied efficacy.

This study applied a temporal approach (“crime script analysis” or CSA) to identify, map and compare the sequential stages (or “scenes”) in the life histories of violent and non-violent extremists who have committed acts of extremism across different age groups. Crime scripts comprising mainly qualitative data for 40 male extremists (20 violent, 20 non-violent “cases”) were developed, and CSA was conducted according to the age at which they committed their first extremist offence.

Results demonstrated key temporal, developmental differences between the pathways of extremists who commit their first offence at different ages. One key difference was that for both the violent and non-violent extremists, those under 30 used the internet as a main means of joining networks and spreading information, whereas the over 30s made more personal, community links.

This research can aid identification of potential environmental triggers and potential increased susceptibility to triggers across certain age groups.

The main objective of this research is to investigate if there is a long-term relationship between “terrorism” and sustainable “economic growth” in Big Ten Countries.

The data was tested via Panel ARDL Analysis. The growth rate (GR) is the dependent variable, and the “Global Terror Index (GTI)” is the independent variable as the terror indicator. The ratio of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the ratio of External Balance (EB) to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are included in the model as the control variables due to their effect on the growth rate. A Panel ARDL analysis is conducted to examine the existence of long-term co-integration between terror and the economy. The planning of the study, the formation of its theoretical and conceptual framework, and the literature research were carried out in 2 months, and the collection of data, the creation of the methodology and the analysis of the analyzes were carried out in 2 months, the interpretation of the findings and the development of policy recommendations were carried out within a period of 1 month. The entire study was completed in a total of 5 months.

Results showed that “Terror” has a negative impact on “Growth Rate” in the long term while “External Balance” and “Foreign Direct Investment” positively affect the Growth Rate. The coefficients for the short term are not statistically significant.

The sample is only limited to Big Ten including China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Poland and South Africa. The period for annual data collection covers the years between 2002 and 2019 and due to the unavailability of data.

Considering the risks and the mutual negative effect that turns into a vicious circle between terrorism and the economy, it is necessary to eliminate the problems that cause terrorism in the mentioned countries, on the one hand, and to develop policies that will improve economic performance on the other.

Trustful law enforcement bodies have to be established and supported by all technological means to prevent terror. The conditions causing terror have to be investigated carefully and the problems causing terror or internal conflict have to be solved. International cooperation against terrorism has to be strengthened and partnerships, information, experience sharing have to be supported at the maximum levels.

It is certain that terror might have a negative influence on the performance of economies. But the limited number of studies within this vein and the small size of their sample groups mostly including single-country case studies require conducting a study by using a larger sample group of countries. Big Ten here represents at least half of the population of the world and different regions of the Globe.

This study aims to evaluate the suspicious transaction reporting (STR) as a financial intelligence tool to identify the potential strengths and limitations of STR and to come up with the criteria, which will make this tool an effective one in early detection of terrorist financing activities.

Considering the research aim, this research uses the funnelling method for identifying effectiveness criteria. Funnelling is a method of literature review that helps find pertinent literature by refining the search through filtering the available research (Ridley, 2008). Using this method, the researcher first applied the criteria of actionable intelligence to filter the financial intelligence tools to select the most promising and important tool (suspicious transaction reporting) for early detection of terrorist financing activities. The funnelling method was also applied to derive the effectiveness criteria from the operational features, and corresponding limitations, of the suspicious transaction reporting system. The funnelling method was also used to identify those operational features and limitations of suspicious transaction reporting that have the most direct relevance to the early detection problem of suspicious transaction reporting.

There are some operational features of STR that give rise to certain limitations that undermine its effectiveness in terms of early detection of terrorist financing activities. The limitations of STR necessitate a search for criteria that will make STR effective in early detection of terrorist financing activities. Based on the operational features and their corresponding limitations, effectiveness criteria for STR have been derived in this study. It is shown how these effectiveness criteria can remove the limitations of STR.

The list of operational features and the corresponding limitations based on which the effectiveness criteria have been derived may not be exhaustive. There may have other operational features, and corresponding limitations that also make STR largely ineffective in the early detection of terrorist financing activities, and for which more effectiveness criteria should also be derived.

The limitations and the effectiveness criteria will pave the way for redesigning STR in such a way that will make it highly useful for detecting financing activities relating to imminent terrorist attacks.

The society will experience fewer terrorist attacks that will make the society peaceful, happy and vibrant.

In this study, the effectiveness criteria of STR for early detection of terrorist financing activities have been derived in an innovative way by deducing them from the operational features of STR and the corresponding limitations.

Banditry and terrorism constitute serious security risks in Nigeria. This follows the fact that Nigeria is rated as one of the leading states in the world that is plagued by terrorism. Terrorists and bandits usually embark on predicate crimes such as kidnapping, smuggling, narcotics trade, and similar trades to finance their terrorist enterprises in Nigeria. The funds realized by criminals from nefarious sources such as sales of narcotics and ransom from kidnapping are usually laundered to make their criminal enterprises self-sustaining. Thus, all “dirty” money is laundered so as not to attract the attention of law enforcement agents. The funds realized through receipt of ransom from kidnapping, smuggling or funds from sponsors are laundered through channels such as bureau de change, which are difficult to monitor by the Nigerian authorities due, in part, to flaws and loopholes in the current anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist laws. This paper aims to adopt a doctrinal and qualitative desktop research methodology. In this regard, the current anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist laws are discussed to explore possible measures that could be adopted to remedy the flaws and loopholes in such laws and combat money laundering and financing of terrorism in Nigeria.

The article analyses the regulation and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria. In this regard, a doctrinal and qualitative research method is used to explore the flaws in the Nigerian anti-money laundering laws so as to recommend possible remedies in respect thereof.

It is hoped that policymakers and other relevant persons will use the recommendations provided in this article to enhance the curbing of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria.

The article is not based on empirical research.

This study is important and vital to all policymakers, lawyers, law students and regulatory bodies in Nigeria and other countries globally.

The study seeks to curb money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria.

The study is based on original research which is focused on the regulation and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing activities in Nigeria.