Joshua Kirschenbaum
Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and Senior Vice President at the Bank of Hope
Joshua Kirschenbaum is a senior fellow at GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, focusing on illicit finance. Josh joined GMF from the Treasury Department, where he worked from 2011 to 2018. He served as acting director of the Office of Special Measures at Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, overseeing international money laundering investigations under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act. Previously, Josh worked on Iran sanctions at Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). In 2019, he became a Senior Vice President in the Bank Secrecy Act / OFAC Department at the Bank of Hope, a regional bank based in Los Angeles. The views expressed are solely his and do not purport to reflect the views of his employer.
He received a master’s degree in international security from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Northwestern University.
Featured work
Now is not the time to confiscate Russia’s central bank reserves
As the costs of Ukraine’s resistance mount, there are increasing calls to confiscate these frozen reserves to finance Kyiv’s war and reconstruction.
The European Union should sanction Sberbank and other Russian banks
EU should extend harsh sanctions to most or all of the largest Russian banks, including the largest that plays a central role in its financial system.
War in Europe: the financial front
Russia is reeling from massive financial sanctions, while Ukraine’s financial system is battered but remains functional, and the EU and global financi
A European anti-money laundering supervisor: From vision to legislation
In fighting anti-money laundering, the European Commission should act fast toward creating a central supervisory authority.
All work
Blog post
16 May 2022
Now is not the time to confiscate Russia’s central bank reserves
As the costs of Ukraine’s resistance mount, there are increasing calls to confiscate these frozen reserves to finance Kyiv’s war and reconstruction.
Blog post
15 April 2022
The European Union should sanction Sberbank and other Russian banks
EU should extend harsh sanctions to most or all of the largest Russian banks, including the largest that plays a central role in its financial system.
Blog post
07 March 2022
War in Europe: the financial front
Russia is reeling from massive financial sanctions, while Ukraine’s financial system is battered but remains functional, and the EU and global financi
Blog post
24 January 2020
A European anti-money laundering supervisor: From vision to legislation
In fighting anti-money laundering, the European Commission should act fast toward creating a central supervisory authority.
Blog post
25 November 2019
A Major Step Toward Combating Money Laundering in Europe
Combating money laundering in Europe took a momentous step with finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, and Spain puttin
Blog post
26 February 2019
The European Union must change its supervisory architecture to fight money laundering
Money laundering scandals at EU banks have become pervasive. The authors here detail the weaknesses the current AML architecture's fundamental weaknes
Event
15 November 2018
Does Europe’s anti-money laundering framework need a regime change?
Proposal for a more efficient fight against money laundering.
Podcast
30 October 2018
Deep Focus: How to improve anti-money laundering efforts in Europe
In this episode, Bruegel senior fellow Nicolas Véron joins Sean Gibson to discuss the recent Policy Contribution on how to better the European Union a
Policy Brief
25 October 2018
A better European Union architecture to fight money laundering
A series of banking scandals in multiple EU countries has underlined the shortcomings of Europe's anti-money laundering regime. The impact of these sh