Australian banks report a surge in suspected terrorism transactions
Australian banks have warned that they have seen a huge rise in jihadists taking out small bank loans, with no intention of paying them back and maxing out credit cards or overdraft limits, just prior to departing for Syria and Iraq, says Westpac's former Chief Financial Crime Officer, Julie Beesley.  There has been a 300% increase in reports to the national financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, over the past financial year of suspicious transactions related to terrorism, making it $53m that has moved through the country's banks.

Australian jihadists are increasingly taking out small bank loans with no intention of paying them back and maxing out credit cards or overdraft limits immediately before travelling to Syria and Iraq, Westpac's former chief financial crime officer says.

As terrorism financing grows exponentially in Australia, the detection of suspicious bank payments is "like finding the eye of the needle in a haystack, rather than the needle itself", said Julie Beesley, now a doctoral researcher at the University of Sydney.

In the past financial year, there was a 300 per cent increase in reports to the national financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, of suspicious transactions relating to terrorism. This totalled $53 million that had moved through Australian financial institutions.

Ms Beesley, who will address a University of Sydney forum on crime trends on Thursday, said discussions were under way to legislate for banks to be forced to hand over IP addresses of customers to help counter-terrorism investigations, similar to the way telcos have been legislated to provide metadata.