money transfer services

Al-Barakat or al-Barakaat (which means "The Blessed" in Arabic) is a wire transfer network (or rather an informal value transfer system). It originated in Somalia and is involved in the remittance trade. By 2001 it operated in 40 countries and was the country’s largest private employer. Al-Barakat handled about US$140 million a year from the diaspora, and offered phone and Internet services.

The effects of anti-terrorist financing measures of the US government and other participating countries were disastrous for Al-Barakat - and for Somalia, a country with no recognized government and functioning state apparatus, one that has not had a formal system of banking in the past 13 years. iKobo - Money Transfer Services - Send Money Online. After many foreign communities largely washed its hands of the country following the disastrous peacekeeping foray in 1994, remittances had become the lifeline of some of its inhabitants. With no officially recognized private banking system, the remittance trade was dominated by a single firm, Al-Barakat. In 2001, the United States shut down Al-Barakat Bank’s overseas money remittance channel, labeling the bank "the quartermasters of terror. ” (By early 2003, though, only four criminal prosecutions had been filed, and none involved charges of aiding terrorists.