A new approach to the measurement of Hawala

Introduction

Much has been written on Informal Funds Transfers Systems (“IFTS”) and there have been several attempts at quantifying the scale of these. The objective behind this article is to look at a fresh approach, utilising the implications of shadow economies across the world to help in measuring these, and at least to come up with an order of magnitude for these fund transmissions. By this is meant whether we are talking about millions of dollars, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, billions, tens of billions, or even hundreds of billions.