Hawala: An Informal Payment System and Its Use to Finance Terrorism

After the horrible attacks on September 11, 2001, an ancient informal money transfer system called hawala came under scrutiny for its possible involvement in the financing. This book explores what other, similar informal transfer systems exist, and what their percentage of total remittances is. After an analysis of its competitors, hawala is further explained through a sample transaction, followed by an insight on its bookkeeping. Later the institutional framework is analyzed and, most important, its considerable incentives to the customer are outlined. The work then tries to define the 'ideal' characteristics of a transfer system in respect to terrorist financing and explores the current and actual use of hawala to finance terrorism. How are the necessary funds generated and moved? A brief outlook into the future of terrorist financing will end this chapter. Being aware of the incentives to the regular customer as well as to the terrorist organizations to use hawala, the major policies to stop the financing of terrorism will be evaluated as to their efficiency. Are they enough to dry up terrorist funding?

Economist: Studied at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany and at the University of Redlands, USA. Works and lives in Barcelona, Spain.