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A cashless society would help 'stifle' organised crime
31 Dec 2010

Organised crime networks would struggle to operate in a cashless society, it has been claimed.

Jonathan Lipow, associate professor of economics at the Defence Resource Management Institute at the Naval Postgraduate School, called for the current US administration to adopt e-money solutions and eliminate cash completely.

He wrote in The New York Times: "In a cashless economy, insurgents' and terrorists' electronic payments would generate audit trails that could be screened by data mining software; every payment and transfer would yield a treasure trove of information about their agents, their locations and their intentions."

If all consumers were forced to use smart cards or an alternative digital payment method, officials could easily track the flow of funds and crack down on crime, he added.

"In terms of public safety and national security, the sooner the world moves to a digital cashless economy, the better," he said.

In the 1960s, the US government stopped printed higher denomination bills in a bid to prevent criminals from transferring funds easily and anonymously.