Impact of Bank De-risking on Humanitarian Action

Overview

Join ICVA and PHAP on 22 October for a webinar focusing on the bank de-risking and its impact on humanitarian action. Following an introductory briefing, we will discuss with a panel of experts the practical challenges faced by humanitarian NGOs and how to approach this issue from a risk management perspective.

Following an introductory briefing, we will discuss with a panel of experts the practical challenges faced by humanitarian NGOs and how to approach this issue from a risk management perspective. This is the third event of the Learning Stream on Risk Management in Practice, aimed at exploring the current state of risk management in the humanitarian sector.

Register now:

Basic info

Time and date: 22 October 2020, 15:00-16:30 (CEST)

New York: 09:00 - 10:30

London:    14:00 - 15:30

Amman:    16:00 - 17:30

Nairobi:     16:00 - 17:30

Bangkok:   20:00 - 21:30

Manila:      21:00 - 22:30 

Length: 90 minutes

Objective: To have a common understanding of how bank de-risking is impacting the ability of NGOs to work in humanitarian contexts and how to approach the issue from a risk management and advocacy perspective.

Target audience: All practitioners interested in risk management and humanitarian policy issues, particularly NGO staff.

Why this topic?

Over the last few years the issue of “bank de-risking” has increasingly impacted the ability of humanitarian NGOs to safely and effectively transfer funds to programmes where people are most in need. While bank de-risking can affect the operations of any type of organisation, humanitarian organisations are particularly affected due to the nature of their work and the contexts in which they operate.

Often related to compliance with counter-terrorism measures, bank de-risking measures by financial institutions manifest themselves to humanitarian organisations in the form of refused transactions, closed accounts, or other restrictions. While bank de-risking issues for humanitarian organisations have to a large degree concerned money transfers to operations in fragile countries, there are more and more examples of humanitarian organisations facing difficulties transferring funds even at the headquarters level. Humanitarian organisations have to resort to transferring money in risky ways in order to preserve programme continuity, thus bank de-risking practices can increase the risks of fraud, security, compliance and lack of transparency.

An opaque banking system which has limited accountability to humanitarian organisations and their principles leave little to be done for individual organisations in term of appealing or objecting to what sometimes seem like arbitrary decisions. Bank de-risking is lacking research and advocacy since most organisations avoid discussing how it affects them. This is why humanitarian organisations need to step up both the management of this risk and common advocacy towards both donors and financial regulators.

This webinar is the third of a series on Risk Management in Practice.

Speakers and facilitators

     Sangeeta Goswami 

    Advocacy and Communications Officer,  Human Security Collective (HSC)

     Khaleel Desai

     Head of Governance, Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW)

     Philippe Besson

Co-facilitators:

     Alon Plato

     Policy Officer, ICVA

     Angharad Laing

     Executive Director, PHAP

Recommended reading:

• Global Not-for-Profit-Organisation (NPO) Coalition on FATF - Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF/GAFI) Platform
• International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL) Financial Action Task Force Tool Kit
• Community World Services Asia (CWSA) Webinar, Impact of the FATF Standards on the non-profit sector during COVID-19, June 2020.
• Dustin Walker, Rsik Management Principles Guide for Sending Humanitarian Funds into Syria and other High-Risk Jurisdictions, May 2020.
• ICVA’s 2020 Annual Conference “Protecting principled humanitarian action: an honest conversation on risk”, 19 March 2020
• ICVA’s briefing paper “Reinforce, Reinforce, Reinforce: Localisation in the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response” (30 March 2020)
• ICVA’s Risk Management resource page
• ICVA briefing paper, "Risk and Humanitarian Culture"
• Alice DeBarre "Making Sanctions Smarter: Safeguarding Humanitarian Action" (December 2019)
• Hayes, Ben, ECNL and HSC, "At the Intersection of Security and Regulation: Understanding the drivers and impact of "derisking" on civil society organisations", Illustrated by caste studies from Brazil, Mexico and Ireland (March 2018). 
• Stuart Gordon, Sherine El Taraboulsi-McCarthy (Overseas Development Institute amd Humanitarian Forum), "Policy brief: Counter-terrorism, bank de-risking and humanitarian response: a path forward: Key findings from four case studies "(August 2018).