Fighting money laundering with technology: a case study of Bank X in the UK

This paper presents a longitudinal interpretive case study of a UK bank’s efforts to combat Money Laundering (ML) by expanding the scope of its profiling of ML behaviour. The concept of structural coupling, taken from systems theory, is used to reflect on the bank’s approach to theorize about the nature of ML-profiling. The paper offers a practical contribution by laying a path towards the improvement of money laundering detection in an organizational context while a set of evaluation measures is extracted from the case study. Generalizing from the case of the bank, the paper presents a systems-oriented conceptual framework for ML monitoring

A systems theoretical approach for anti-money laundering informed by a case study in a Greek financial institution: Self-reference, AML, its systematic constitution and technological consequences.

This dissertation constitutes a systems theoretical analysis of Anti-Money Laundering that dismisses the projected ideals of holism and delves into the core of Systems Theory (ST) in the tradition of second-order cybernetics. This theoretical approach of ST is appropriated in order to describe the domain of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) as a system in itself and at the same time examine the consequences that technology comes to play within the system of AML. While the contemporary phenomenon of AML has been reduced mostly into a set of technological consequences from profiling technologies (technologies that attempt within financial institutions to model and simulate money-laundering behaviour for the generation of suspicious transactions), this dissertation takes a different approach. Instead of focusing at profiling technologies that are believed to be the core technological artefacts that influence AML within financial institutions, this dissertation examines a variety of information systems and their interplay and describes through empirical findings the multitude of interactions that are technologically supported and that construct a much more complex picture of dealing with AML and thereby influencing how money-laundering is perceived. The empirical findings supporting the theoretical treatise come from a longitudinal case study of a Greek financial institution where a systematic examination takes place regarding a variety of information systems that may affect AML within the bank. Beyond isolated interferences of information systems to AML, their interrelations are further examined in order to reflect on the emergent complexity that often distorts cause-and-effect AML manipulations. The theoretical contributions put forward, constitute a systems theoretical application and an expansion of technological/systemic interferences, while the practical contributions to AML cover broader systems-theoretical reflections on the domain, technological integration within financial institutions for targeting ML, feedback relations between financial institutions and Financial Intelligence Units, as well as the systemic consequences for the newly implemented risk-based approach

Online child sexual exploitation: a new MIS challenge

© 2021, Association for Information Systems. All rights reserved. This paper deals with the difficult yet increasingly important MIS phenomenon of online child sexual exploitation (online CSE). Through the use of secondary and publicly available data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as primary data from a cybercrime police unit in the United Kingdom, this study takes a grounded theory approach and organizes the role that technologies and social actors play in shaping online CSE. The paper contributes to IS theory by providing a consolidated model for online CSE, which we call the technology and imagery dimensions model. This model combines the staging of the phenomenon and the key dimensions that depict how the use of technology and imagery both fuels and defuses the phenomenon. In informing the construction of the model, the paper extracts, organizes, and generalizes the affordances of technology and discusses the role of information systems in detecting online CSE

Taking the first step with systems theorizing in information systems : a response

We address the commentaries of Robey and Mikhaeil, of Mingers, and of Schultze which provided responses to our paper, “Crafting theory to satisfy the requirements of systems science.” We find their responses useful for reflecting on the development of the role of systems theorising within information systems research and provide our reaction in order to clarify several fundamental considerations pertaining to 1) our proposed set of requirements for systems theorizing, 2) the need for explicit systems theorizing, 3) the supposed overall neglect of systems science, 4) the communicability of systems theory and the path of grand theories, 5) emergence, the observer, and other considerations, and 6) systems theory from the perspective of sociomateriality

Crafting theory to satisfy the requirements of systems science

Just as Lee, Briggs & Dennis (2014) showed that a rigorous conception of “explanation” leads to requirements for a positivist theory to satisfy, and just as Lee & Hovorka (2015) showed that a rigorous conception of “interpretation” leads to requirements for an interpretive theory to satisfy, we show that a rigorous conception of “systems” leads to certain requirements for a systems theory to satisfy. We apply basics of systems science in general, as well as basics of Luhmann’s (Luhmann, 1995; Moeller, 2006) systems perspective in particular. We illustrate these basics with empirical material from a case about the role of information technology in anti-money laundering. The example demonstrates that research in information systems, which has been informed by positivism, interpretivism, and design, can be additionally and beneficially informed by systems science – which, ironically, has been largely absent in information “systems” research

When humans using the IT artifact becomes IT using the human artifact

Following Demetis & Lee (2016) who showed how systems theorizing can be conducted on the basis of a few systems principles, in this conceptual paper, we apply these principles to theorize about the systemic character of technology and investigate the role reversal in the relationship between humans and technology. By applying systems-theoretical requirements outlined by Demetis & Lee, we examine conditions for the systemic character of technology and, based on our theoretical discussion, we argue that humans can now be considered artifacts shaped and used by the (system of) technology rather than vice versa. We argue that the role reversal has considerable implications for the field of information systems that has thus far focused only on the use of the IT artifact by humans. We illustrate these ideas with empirical material from a well-known case from the financial markets: the collapse (“Flash Crash”) of the Dow Jones Industrial Average

Technology and anti-money laundering: A systems theory and risk-based approach

This insightful book examines the influence of information systems on anti-money laundering (AML). It builds on systems theory in order to develop a coherent theoretical framework that can be used for AML research.By using a case study of a major financial institution in the EU-area, a number of technological influences on AML are deconstructed and are used to examine the role that technology plays within AML. The book provides a systems theoretical description of the effects of technology on AML and offers considerations on the risk-based approach – the most important contemporary evolution within regulatory initiatives on AML and terrorism financing

Data growth, the new order of information manipulation and consequences for the AML/ATF domains

© 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited. PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the problem of data growth as a complex contemporary phenomenon and discuss its implications for the domains of anti‐money laundering (AML) and anti‐terrorist financing (ATF). Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical approach of the paper is based upon an examination of the fundamental ideas around information growth, along with the tradition of systems theory and is based upon many of the theoretical concepts discussed by Niklas Luhmann. The concept of distinction is used throughout the paper to discuss technological consequences. FindingsThe volume of data for manipulation and its implications on profiling AML and ATF are discussed while the issue data growth are presented as an elemental and core issue within the paper. Practical implicationsThe practical implications of this paper relate to how technology should be appropriated within financial and other institutions and how the decision‐making processes of traditional bureaucracies surrounding AML/ATF should reflect on their utilization of technology. Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in its unique dealing of the problem of data growth through its implications and a new theoretical concept is introduced, the concept of electreaucracy to denote the systemic technological interference in bureaucratic conditions and how these influence AML/ATF

Breaking bad online: a synthesis of the darker sides of social networking sites

This essay deconstructs the ultra-dark side of social media and explores the variety of ‘bad’ behaviour online by looking at a wide spectrum of exploitative practices. Through the use of primary data from an online platform, we posit the question ‘What’s the worst thing you’ve done online’? We collect, code and synthesise the fully anonymised discussions and develop a classification model for bad online behaviour. We combine the categories that emerge from our empirical data with those proposed by Baccarella et al. (2018) and develop a new combined (meta-) classification model that captures both the dark side of social networking and the ultra-dark. A framework is proposed for conceptualising the spectrum of exploitative practices and the essay concludes by providing a series of management considerations