What is Terrorist Financing?

Terrorist financing provides funds for terrorist activity.  The main objective of terrorist activity is to intimidate a population or compel a government to do something by killing, seriously harming or endangering one or more persons; causing substantial property damage that is likely to seriously harm one or more persons; or seriously interfering with or disrupting essential services, facilities or systems.

There are two main sources of terrorist financing – financial support from countries, organizations or individuals, and revenue-generating activities that may include criminal activities.

The second source, revenue generating activities, may involve drug trafficking, human smuggling, theft, robbery and fraud to generate money.  Funds raised to finance terrorism usually have to be laundered and thus anti-money laundering processes in banks and other reporting industries are important in the identification and tracking of terrorist financing activities in Canada.