Susan Hayes Culleton

Well, hello and welcome to Taking Stock.

I'm Susan Hayes-Cullerton and this is the show that looks at business and economics from a wider perspective.

Coming up on today's show, is it time for boards to show more courage?

I'll be talking to an author who says it's long overdue.

Now that the United Arab Emirates has pulled out of OPEC, what does that mean for the future of the so-called petrodollar?

Plus, while AI is grabbing headlines in the US, it's healthcare that is grabbing job growth.

We will take a close look at that.

You can email the show, takingstockatnewstalk.com or, of course, you can message me on social media at Susan Hayes Cullerton.

Now, this week, Ireland hosted the European Anti-Financial Crime Summit.

And I was reading the Tánaiste Simon Harris' keynote speech from that summit.

I wasn't at it myself, but I was interested in this since so many people had gathered to talk about such a topic.

And in that speech, he highlighted that illicit financial activity reached a staggering $4.4 trillion in 2025.

And that's an increase of almost 20% on the year before.

Now, nine times in that speech, Simon Harris referred to AML.

So I wanted to talk through that in this week's explainer.

AML stands for anti-money laundering, and it's the laws, regulations and procedures that are designed to stop criminals disguising illegally obtained money as legitimate income.

And I'm mentioning that today because the Tánaiste also said that the European Union has undertaken, and I quote, the most significant reform of its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing framework in a generation.

So you might be hearing those three letters a lot more often and hopefully for all the right reasons.

Now, so what do you think of when you hear the phrase member of the board?

What is their age, their career status or their knowledge of current social, economic or political events?