Joshua Kirschenbaum

External authors

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.

Now is not the time to confiscate Russia’s central bank reserves

The idea of confiscating the Bank of Russia’s frozen reserves is attractive to some, but at this stage in the Ukraine conflict confiscation would be counterproductive and likely illegal.

By: Joshua Kirschenbaum and Nicolas Véron Topic: Banking and capital markets, Global economy and trade Date: May 16, 2022

The European Union should sanction Sberbank and other Russian banks

Sanctions on Sberbank and most other Russian banks should be imposed by the EU, without delay and at no major cost to either itself or like-minded countries, while it ponders an oil and gas ban.

By: Joshua Kirschenbaum and Nicolas Véron Topic: Banking and capital markets, Global economy and trade Date: April 15, 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 financial systems have rather easily absorbed the initial shock.

By: Joshua Kirschenbaum and Nicolas Véron Topic: Global economy and trade Date: March 7, 2022

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 shortcomings has been further underlined by changing geopolitics and by the new reality of European banking union. The imperative of establishing sound supervisory incentives to fight illicit finance effectively demands a stronger EU-level role in anti-money laundering supervision. The authors here detail their plan for a new European unitary architecture, centred on a new European anti-money laundering authority that would work on the basis of deep relationships with national authorities.

By: Joshua Kirschenbaum and Nicolas Véron Topic: Macroeconomic policy Date: October 25, 2018