Weekly Notes, 037.
September 19, 2025
👋 Readers, this is 37 straight weeks of Weekly Notes! Thought I forgot about you, avid readers? Not quite, just resetting the weekly schedule as the demands are starting to pile up!
Travel blog update: spent the past few days in Las Vegas. Final pool days of the summer season, a few great meetings, and a conference (that others attended), too!
This week's headline comes from the new Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, John K. Hurley:
“Our concept for reforming the system is simple. First, law enforcement and the national security establishment are the customers of our anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) system, and our North Star will be to remain laser focused on that customer. Second, AML/CFT programs should deliver better outcomes by providing those customers with the most useful information, not by overwhelming the system with noise.”
The Hurley quote comes from his speech delivered at the ACAMS Las Vegas conference — I highly recommend digging into the entire speech and following Hurley’s subsequent movements to the border and down to Mexico City to catch the clear signals around prioritization.
Below, you’ll find directly sourced links to information that I’ve been consuming since last week and using to get smarter on issues of interest. Plus, expect to see more aggregated sourcing from Perplexity.
I hope these weekly notes are useful, and I appreciate any feedback you have.
Interesting issues and news across the US economic and national security landscape.
Analysis:
This past week was filled with designations and actions against the Cartels and Terrorists (now the same designated bad actors). We continue to see a focus on the intersections between Chinese Money Laundering Networks, the Cartels, Iranian proxies, and Terrorists. President Trump spent time in the UK securing the Technology Prosperity Deal, which focuses on AI, innovation, and nuclear energy.
There are eight (8) links below for further reading and reference.
Treasury Sanctions Powerful Faction of the Terrorist Sinaloa Cartel
Sanctioning La Mayiza Faction of the Sinaloa Cartel
Treasury Targets Financial Network Supporting Iran’s Military
Treasury Sanctions Sudanese Islamist Actors to Counter Regional Instability and Support for Iran
Treasury Sanctions Houthi Illicit Revenue and Procurement Networks
Terrorist Designations of Iran-Aligned Militia Groups
President Trump Signs Technology Prosperity Deal with United Kingdom
Interesting issues and news across finance, technology, risk, regulation, and financial crime.
Analysis:
The Fed has finally cut; a couple of important speeches were delivered at ACAMS Las Vegas; Congressional Committees are demanding answers on how fraud and scams are being addressed, why the CTA was gutted, and how the US financial system enabled Epstein; Regulators, like the OCC, are making moves to simply supervision; and NVIDIA invested in Intel. It was a busy week of activity across this space.
There are 11 links below for further reading and reference.
READOUT: Second Annual FINTRAC-FinCEN Symposium in Washington, D.C.
Treasury Seeks Public Comment on Implementation of the GENIUS Act
Chairmen Hill, Meuser, Barr Demand Answers from Fed on Financial Fraud
Comptroller Issues Statement at Financial Stability Oversight Council Meeting
OCC Announces Updates to Organizational Structure
Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement
NVIDIA and Intel to Develop AI Infrastructure and Personal Computing Products
Interesting reports and resources.
Anthropic Economic Index report: Uneven geographic and enterprise AI adoption
The Global Anti-Financial Crime System is Broken
Interesting charts of the week.
