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When two Estonians set up Transferwise back in 2012, they were creating a modern version of hawala, the informal money transfer system that's still responsible for the transfer of about $200 billion every year.

Now German authorities are making a renewed push to crack down on the hawala system. "Germany has long been a target for dirty money and terrorist funds given its global trade connections and extensive use of cash," reports Bloomberg.

"An international watchdog faulted the country in 2022 for inadequate coordination between the more than 300 authorities responsible for tackling money laundering and highlighted hawala as a key area for improvement.

Rodolphe at BaFin says in an ideal world, aid agencies or the UN would think about how they could set up their own provider for aid payments. She says hawala is used by criminals, who often profit at the expense of refugees.

'There's only a handful of countries in the world where it's very hard to transfer money to,' says Rodolphe. 'But they're all high-risk and there's a reason for that: war, terror, drugs trade. That's why banks and payment firms have pulled back from them.

The majority of payments there are problematic'." Many people use hawala because of practical problems: newly arrived in countries, they often can't get bank accounts – the history of founders of remittance companies is ripe with such stories.

There's also the matter that fees are generally high and it's only in the last decade that they've come down with competition from fintech providers.