How m-banking can reduce laundering

At the least, the shift of customers from informal value transfer systems into the formal financial sector will lessen the number of informal customers and transactions.

This in turn will allow governments to focus their resources on identifying individuals interested in informal systems only for their secretive nature. In this way, the increase in m-banking popularity may serve to doubly enable government efforts against criminals and money launderers.

Regulatory hurdles will continue, and will provoke intense and meaningful debate. Law enforcement agencies will have to adapt, and create mechanisms to monitor the increasing m-banking traffic for potential signs of criminal acts.

However, it is important to remember that m-banking is a net boon for government anti-money laundering efforts.

The challenge of mobile banking for governments is to design regulatory systems that allow for criminal detection, without squelching attributes that have allowed it to thrive.

Mr Herbert is a Master’s candidate at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.