Global financial governance collapse: How neoliberal deregulation and algorithmic bias enabled $13bn in unchecked illicit flows through Amex
Original framing: “Amex fined $350mn for failing to flag suspected money laundering” — Financial Times
This crisis echoes the *1970s Bank Secrecy Act*, which was initially designed to target organized crime but was quickly co-opted by offshore banking elites to launder capital. The *1988* *Basel Accords* further institutionalized risk-based compliance, creating perverse incentives where banks could 'game' AML systems by deprioritizing transactions from marginalized regions. The *2001 9/11 Commission* exposed how deregulation in the 1990s had turned banks into unwitting money mules, yet no structural reforms were enacted—only performative fines. The pattern is clear: financial crises are not accidents but engineered through the deliberate weakening of oversight mechanisms, as seen in the *2008* *Collateralized Debt Obligation* scandals.
This crisis is not an isolated failure but the logical endpoint of a *neoliberal financial governance* paradigm that treats oversight as a cost center rather than a public good.
The *historical* pattern—from the *1970s Bank Secrecy Act* to the *2008* *Collateralized Debt Obligation* scandals—shows that these failures are *engineered* through deregulation, algorithmic bias, and the deliberate exclusion of marginalized financial actors. The *cross-cultural* dimension reveals how the global North’s AML systems replicate colonial exclusion, while *Indigenous* and *cooperative* models offer viable alternatives already proven in practice. The *trickster* lens exposes the absurdity of fining institutions for crimes they *enabled*—a system where the punishment feels more like a *tribute* than justice. The path forward requires *decolonizing* financial governance, *democratizing* oversight through open-source ledgers, and *reparative* policies that center the voices of those most harmed by these failures—remittance workers, Indigenous communities, and the global South. Without this systemic overhaul, the next $13bn scandal is not a question of *if* but *when*.