Thursday, November 17, 2005

Hawalla

Hawalla often given the definition of being a money laundering scam, Hawalla is older than the banks, it is a system used all over the world. Hawalla is said to move more money then modern Banks do daily in the Middle East and is often coupled with interest free loans with nominal service charges. World governments (and banks) fear the system as it allows untraceable asset transfers worldwide and is suspected to be the single biggest threat to the increasing terrorism against the US and other countries. It will not be easy to root out as it such a protected and secret group which controls it. Bin Laden and the boys regularly use the Hawalla system and it is deeply rooted in South Asia and the Middle East. Hawalla is often the only money transfer system in some areas of the world and even in the face of third world banks is perceived to be more trustworthy and efficient than the legal banking systems.