Skip to content
  • Colleagues review information to help them identify and manage financial crime risk.

    About us

    Fighting financial crime

    We’re tackling financial crime head-on for the safety of our clients and the communities we serve.

    Report suspected fraud
Home > About us > Fighting financial crime

How we make a difference

Financial crime is big business for international criminal organisations and the stakes are high. Not only does it distort markets and undermine governance, security and trust in institutions, but it brings harm to people and communities. 

Whilst the financial system has the power to transform lives for the better, it can also be exploited by bad actors to fund and profit from some of today’s most damaging crimes, from human trafficking and terrorism to corruption and the drug trade. 

At Standard Chartered, our clients trust us to play a positive and leading role in safeguarding the global financial system, devising innovative ways to stop criminals in their tracks. Alongside supporting sustainable growth across our footprint, we are also committed to preventing, detecting, reporting and investigating financial crime wherever we encounter it – helping, in turn, to protect our clients, communities and the societies we serve. 

What is financial crime?

Learn more about the common types of financial crime risk.

Fighting Financial Crime goes beyond just meeting our Regulatory requirements. Our clients trust us to stay one step ahead of the criminals. Through our controls, people and partnerships, we can make a real difference in the fight against financial crime.
Profile
Stevenson Munro
Global Head, Financial Crime Risks 

How we fight financial crime

Robust controls and technological innovation help us fight financial crime. But people remain our most important line of defence – from our own colleagues and clients to our partners in governments, regulators and other financial institutions.

From the values shared by our leaders to extensive training programs across the year, we’re dedicated to building a culture where all employees, wherever they sit in the Bank, see fighting financial crime as an important part of their job.

We implement the same set of restrictions, controls, analysis, and responses across our entire organisation in all locations.

The Whole Story

Each year, our internal Group-wide financial crime awareness and learning campaign, ‘The Whole Story’, brings together the Bank’s leaders and external experts in a series of internally-broadcast briefings, case studies and panel discussions.

Global Conduct Week

Global Conduct Week is an annual opportunity for us to celebrate good conduct, reinforce our valued behaviours and promote the importance of ethics, trust and integrity with interactive panels from both internal and external experts. During the week, we also mark World Whistleblowers Day and remind colleagues about our ‘Speaking Up’ channels – reinforcing the importance of speaking up about any suspected wrongdoing without fear of retaliation, including as it relates to potential financial crime  

Colleagues walk together in a Standard Chartered office in Singapore.

Key partnerships

We take our position as a global bank seriously, building key partnerships with regulators, governments, law enforcement and other banks to raise the bar across the industry.

Our trusted partnerships make us more effective at combating financial crime, helping us improve our collective understanding of the nature of criminal activity and keep pace as technology changes both criminal methods, and our ability to respond.

By bringing together parties from the public and private sectors we can stay ahead of the threat and reduce the damaging impact of financial crimes across our global footprint.

We do this across many of our markets by actively participating and engaging in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). Standard Chartered is a founding member of PPPs in the United Kingdom, India, United States, South Africa, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong

We are one of the 12 member banks of the Wolfsberg Group, an association through which we advocate for more effective anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

Staff across our markets regularly participate in Wolfsberg working groups on specific topics. In January 2026, our Global Head of Financial Crime Risks Stevenson Munro was appointed Co-Chair of Wolfsberg, underscoring our strong commitment to developing robust frameworks and guidance.

We also engage as a ‘Partnership Forum’ supporter of the Royal United Services Institute Centre for Finance and Security.

Our Compliance, Financial Crime and Conduct Risk (CFCR) team sets our Financial Crime Risk management framework. We implement the same set of restrictions, controls, analysis, and responses across our entire organisation in all locations.

We seek to protect our clients and communities against money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions, fraud, and other risks by applying core controls such as client due-diligence, screening and monitoring, and strengthening our people’s ability to identify, manage and mitigate such risks.

In addition, anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) and fraud prevention controls aim to prevent colleagues, or third parties working on our behalf, from engaging in fraud, bribery or corruption.

Tackling predicate crimes

What we do matters

See how we’re making a difference and recognition our teams have received for their efforts in fighting financial crime.

Human trafficking

Human trafficking is when people are transported by means of threats, force or other forms of coercion for the purpose of exploitation. 

It is one of the types of crime which forms part of modern slavery, representing some of the gravest forms of human rights abuses. 

We’re committed to identifying, preventing, mitigating and remediating any risks relating to human rights across our operations, supply chain and client relationships, as set out in our Position Statement on Human Rights. 

Human trafficking is also a predicate offence to other forms of financial crime, such as money laundering and bribery and corruption. We have robust policies designed to tackle these crimes. 

Beyond this, we’re also an active partner of Stop the Traffik – a charitable organisation committed to ending human trafficking and modern slavery. As part of our partnership, we subscribe to their Traffik Analysis Hub, the largest interactive database of international trafficking information available to financial institutions, business, governments, NGOs, law enforcement and academia. 

You can learn more about how we manage modern slavery risk and how we continue to enhance our approach by reading our Modern Slavery Statement.

Close

Illegal wildlife trade

Organised crime groups who participate in the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) are often involved in other criminal activities, including corruption, drug trafficking, tax evasion, kidnapping, and modern slavery and human trafficking.  

By following the money, financial institutions can:  

  1. Build a better picture of the finances behind the trade  
  1. Identify and map criminal networks  
  1. Provide evidence to support investigations and prosecutions  

We are a member of the Royal Foundation United for Wildlife Financial Task Force, and in 2018 signed we signed the Mansion House Declaration committing to “contributing to the global fight against Illegal Wildlife Trafficking” and we renewed our commitments in 2026.  

The Declaration outlines six commitments:  

  1. Increasing awareness of how the financial industry can combat IWT  
  1. Providing training to identify and investigate suspicious activity  
  1. Providing intelligence to regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies  
  1. Reviewing intelligence alerts received through the Taskforce and taking appropriate actions  
  1. Considering additional actions such as policy amendments  
  1. Promote the Taskforce commitments and its successes.
Close

Terrorist financing

Terrorist groups utilise multiple methods to raise, store and use funds. Sources can include taxation and extortion, theft and donations, as well as private funds and card or loan fraud.

Financial institutions use risk categories to help support legitimate customers and stop the flow of money to terrorist groups.

Customer risk

  • Charities and not-for-profits
  • Money service businesses
  • Unregulated MSBs, including money mules
  • New payment method providers

Product and channels risk

  • New payment methods, including prepaid cards

Geographies risk

  • Sanctioned countries
  • Countries with significant terrorist activity
  • Conflict countries or those bordering conflict countries
  • Countries with repressive regimes

Major controls include:

  • Training and awareness
  • Transaction screening
  • CDD and transaction monitoring
  • Investigations and disclosures
  • External partnerships
  • Intelligence operations
  • Name screening

Close

Stopping scams in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, our vital contribution in detecting and preventing scams was recognised by the Hong Kong Police at their 2026 Bank Staff Recognition Ceremony, winning various awards including the Anti-Money Laundering Excellence Award, Outstanding STR case award, Effective Publicity and Education award (Anti-Scam) and Real-Time Vigilance Volume & Impact Award.

Close

Skills training in Nigeria

In Nigeria, financial crime risk staff annually hold skills-based training for youth from low-income neighbourhoods at government schools. Educating them on the increasing dangers of financial crimes such as money mules, drug abuse and trafficking, as well as offering career advice. In 2025, this included over 400 young people.

Close

A careers day in Jersey

Our SCB Jersey CFCR staff brought the world of Compliance and Financial Crime prevention to life at Jersey’s Le Rocquier Finance Day speaking to youths to increase awareness of careers in Financial Crime and importantly sparking future financial crime fighters through interactive and fascinating sessions on scams and frauds and even identifying red flags. Sharing knowledge can plant seeds of confidence, resilience, responsibility and awareness that last a lifetime.

Close

Upskilling in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh we are helping to build a pipeline of skilled professionals equipped to address evolving financial crime risks and regulatory expectations by partnering with Brac University and the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to launch the Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) Certification Programme. To date, approximately 300 young professionals comprising six cohorts have successfully graduated. As the first of its kind in Bangladesh, the program reinforces the Bank’s commitment to advancing industry capability and promoting a stronger compliance culture across the financial sector.

Close