Mitchell Centre Seminar series
| Dates: | 20 November 2024 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Diana Bociga
University of Manchester
Exploring the UK's anti-money laundering network: multiple relationships, structural patterns, and brokerage Roles
The UK’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime involves collaboration among national, regional, and local law enforcement agencies, regulators, and the private sector, forming networks to share resources and conduct joint operations. Drawing on interviews with 33 AML professionals from these agencies and employing a mixed-methods Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach, this study investigates the UK’s AML security network. It proposes a multiplex approach to distinguish key network dimensions and examine their interactions. Two core dimensions are identified: strategic (e.g. interactions within governance forums to align policies and share best practices) and tactical/operational (e.g. joint investigations and enforcement actions). The analysis reveals a moderate overlap between these dimensions, with a low correlation, demonstrating how the strategic and tactical dimensions serve distinct but complementary purposes in AML governance. The study also explores the presence of a core-periphery structure, finding that while the aggregated network moderately aligns with this structure, the strategic dimension exhibits a stronger core-periphery fit. This suggests enhanced coordination within the strategic dimension. Additionally, brokerage roles are examined using the Gould and Fernandez (1989) framework, which reveals that such roles are predominantly held by diverse state actors, with private entities occupying fewer positions. Notably, UK police forces play limited brokerage roles, having been surpassed by other state actors and private supervisory bodies, particularly within the accountancy sector, which has emerged as a key broker in AML efforts. These findings advance our understanding of security networks and contribute to discussions on anchoring processes within the framework of 'anchored pluralism', which positions the state as the primary anchor, ensuring equitable security provision.
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G6
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
