It brought wealth to safe havens like the Cayman Islands, which now has signed on to the effort to restrict laundering. The Seychelles are aspiring to become money-laundering giants, and all over Asia, where cash is king and checks are for chumps, laundering is still second nature. Experiments are under way around the world to market smart cards containing an electronic chip that can be filled or emptied with the equivalent of cash. The most elaborate experiment is Mondex, a project of the National Westminster and Midland Banks in England, along with British Telecom. The cards can be filled with cash from bank machines or over the telephone from a bank account.
Money can move from one card to another, in person or again by phone.
And the holder of the card, operating in splendid anonymity, can use it for large or small purchases. Pilot projects are planned in San Francisco, Canada and Hong Kong, which is already Asia's greatest money-laundering center. IPS - Drug trafficking has become so pervasive a global current that many economies and various politicians depend on the laundering of dirty money and traffickers actually control some large international banks, a conference here was told. Such was its global dimensions, a broad multinational strategy was required. Some 160 delegates from 58 drug producing and consumer countries attended the three-day meeting.