The Economic Crime & Geopolitics Index, featuring Sri Lankan expertise and technology, was launched at the University of Cambridge as a dynamic system designed to move beyond traditional corruption indexes and address emerging threats to governance and national security across South Asia and ASEAN.
A new framework for identifying and predicting economic crime was introduced at Jesus College, University of Cambridge, during the 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. The Economic Crime & Geopolitics Index (ECGI) incorporates Sri Lankan technological capabilities and represents a shift away from static measurement tools toward a dynamic monitoring system that can anticipate risks before they escalate into institutional or financial crises.
The timing of the launch reflects growing concerns across the region. Recent cases have drawn public attention to large-scale economic crimes, including allegations involving Sri Lanka's illegal outward transfer of funds valued at approximately US$1 billion, corruption investigations connected to SriLankan Airlines, and significant irregularities in Philippine flood-control projects. These incidents have prompted researchers to reconceptualize economic crime beyond traditional definitions of corruption and fraud, recognizing it instead as a systemic threat to governance structures, institutional stability, and national security.
The ECGI integrates multiple analytical layers to achieve its objectives. The platform combines assessment of corruption depth, anti-money laundering vulnerabilities, and economic-crime severity with measurements of public trust, institutional confidence, and reporting patterns. Two embedded technologies—Conscience IQ and Mithra—enable the system to analyze human factors such as corruption tolerance and civic trust, while simultaneously maintaining evidence integrity through tokenized documentation and verifiable data chains.
Panelists at the Cambridge event, including representatives from financial services and technology sectors, emphasized that the framework aims to function as a foresight engine rather than a comparative ranking system. The ECGI will initially focus on South Asia and ASEAN nations before expanding to other regions, with developers seeking collaboration from economic-crime researchers, investigators, policymakers, and practitioners globally.
