On February 12 28 finance ministers of the European Union (EU) who are members of the European Commission met in Brussels to request the European Central Bank to set up measures to control high denomination notes, particularly the €500 note.
Cash is the preferred mode of transaction in alleged illegal activities by terrorists, drug lords, money launderers and even petty criminals. Because such transactions are anonymous, it is very difficult to trace them. In 2006 Spain realized it was home to one quarter of all €500notes in circulation and speculated that members of the “Bin Laden” group had been using cash in all its transactions. Priceonomics.com said of cash as the “oxygen” of crime quite difficult to extinguish and may not be completely vanquished.
France increased its restrictions on the use of cash following the attacks in Paris late last year. In January 2015 the attacks in a Jewish supermarket and against the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, terrorists were said to be funded by cash earned partly from the sale of counterfeit goods. Starting on September 2015, French citizens can make cash payments of only up to €1,000, down from €3,000 even as money-laundering authorities monitor deposits and withdrawals in excess of €10,000 in a month.
The authorities realized criminal elements prefer using the €500 note because transactions in the denomination are easy to conceal.
A report from the European Police Office, or Europol, noted that the €500 note accounts for a third of all the euro currency in circulation. Furthermore, a large stash of euro notes in denominations of €50 to €500 were held outside of EU, heightening suspicions these were being used by foreign criminals (source: theguardian.com).
All countries are encouraged to strictly monitor possible money-laundering activities and set up controls against financing terrorists. This June, the European Commission will release a list of blacklisted countries that do not provide controls against these activities.
In the Philippines, we better learn from Europe and the US on ways to use less cash and shift to digital transfers instead. Since the 1990s, for instance, federal legislation in the US mandate the use of so-called Electronic Benefit Transfer ( EBT) instead of issuing checks for welfare benefits.
The reason was welfare beneficiaries encashed the checks in retail stores and some of these were used in criminal activities. But with EBT, the beneficiaries may use them directly to buy from participating stores. This somehow reduced the use of cash in the economy.
In fact, there are those who look to a future under a full-digital payment system, or the use of microchips implanted under the skin, and the use of virtual currencies like the bitcoin. Nowadays, we have cash cards and other cashless forms of payment.
In 1995 someone shared with me what he read in a book about the future with microchips implants and of a mark on the forehead which could be the mark of the beast described in the Book of Revelations. I shiver at that thought.
I am hoping that in the future when we go completely cashless, we will not be forced to have those chips implanted in our bodies. I am afraid what used to be mere futuristic projections are slowly becoming
a reality.
In the meantime, countries are busy fighting terrorism and criminal activities by minimizing the use of cash.
Who in the past thought that cash and crime can be partners?
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Wilma Miranda is the chairman of the Media Affairs Committee of Finex; managing partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs; and treasurer of KPS Outsourcing Inc. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of these institutions.