For the past five hundred years "mobile" money transfers in the Islamic world were accomplished through the Hawala or Hundi.
The Hawala is an informal money transfer system with a huge network of money brokers which are 
primarily located in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The transaction takes place entirely on the honor system. The unique feature of the system is that no promissory instruments are exchanged between the hawala brokers. No records are produced of an individual's transactions, no records of individual users are kept; only a running tally of the amount owed one broker by the other. Settlements of debts between hawala brokers can take a variety of forms, and need not be direct cash transactions.
If you think mobile remittances are a modern phenomenon, think again. Modern Mobile remittances are but one of several such systems. Another well known example is the Fei Chien, meaning flying money system indigenous to China, also used around the world. These systems are often referred to as 'underground banking', which isn't entirely accurate since they operate in the open with complete legitimacy (sometimes the ends are illegal), and often these services are heavily advertised within immigrant communities.
Jumping to Mobile transactions of the 21st Century
Mi-Pay Ltd. was established in 2003 by executives who stepped out of Logica, the SMSc and messaging innovator. Originally it had a focus on outsourced pre-paid top off services for mobile operators which
enables consumers to safely and securely add to their acounts from their handsets. Mi-Pay has initiated a pre-paid recharge solution for mobile operators concentrating on Europe and the Middle East. It is looking to help modernize the traditional Hawala/flying money system by providing the mobile payments processing solutions to network operators interested in money transfer services such as remittances. Mi-Pay has been sharpening their technology over the last three years and is now bringing the solution to market focusing on the emerging markets of the Islamic crescent of central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. They currently provide the payments switch to the new market entrant in Dubai, du.
Learn more about Mi-Pay and listen to my interview with Mi-Pay CTO, Simon Cavell at the Mobile World Congress. (8 min)
What countries are currently using this? Japan? Do you see a cash system ever disappearing?
Posted by: scoremore | October 19, 2010 at 10:17 AM