UK authorities and Gulf banks join forces to cut off sources of Islamic State funding

Banks in several of the Gulf’s main financial centres – including Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar – have been developing working relationships with the UK authorities, who, given London’s prominence as an international financial centre, have potentially valuable experience in tackling funding flows going to Islamic State (IS) and other radical groups involved in fighting in Syria and Iraq. It is not yet clear how deep this co-operation runs. One person involved in the process described the relationship as “a work in progress”.