Photo credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, “Counter-ISIL Coalition Small Group Meeting,” CC BY 2.0.

Counter-ISIL Finance Group

Abbreviation

CIFG

Summary

Co-led by Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, the CIFG is part of the broader “Counter-ISIL Coalition effort to enhance coordination among international partners on key lines of effort to defeat ISIL.” Alongside promoting the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions concerning ISIL and “other al-Qaida associated groups in Iraq and Syria,” the CIFG has four main objectives: “to (1) prevent ISIL’s use of the international financial system, including unregulated money remitters; (2) counter ISIL's extortion and exploitation of economic assets and resources -- such as cash, oil, agricultural goods, cultural property, and other economic commodities -- that transit, enter, or are derived from areas in which ISIL operates; (3) deny ISIL funding from abroad, including from external donors, foreign terrorist fighters, and kidnapping for ransom; and (4) prevent ISIL from providing financial or material support to foreign affiliates in an effort to expand its global ambitions.” The CIFG attempts to pursue these objectives through a number of interrelated steps, such as “enhanced information collection and sharing, developing new countermeasures, providing technical assistance, coordinating sanctions efforts, strengthening internal anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing meansures [sic], and private sector outreach.” The inaugural meeting of the Counter-ISIL Finance Group (CIFG) took place in Rome, Italy in March 2015.