Mobile payments are coming to Europe. The ability to buy a cup of coffee with a smart mobile phone could be widely available in less than two years according to a recent article in the Guardian. Visa, La Caixa and Telefónica are running a trial in a small town on the Spanish coast. The focus of the test is on usability and protection against fraud but what are the implications for money laundering?

A euro or dollar passes hand to hand and carries with it no information about the good or bad it has done. Did this dollar buy drugs? Did this euro ride in the wallet of a terrorist? If we are truly on the brink of a revolution in the way we handle "cash" then this is the time to change all of that.

The digital code that represents mobile money should contain a history of every person or business that has used it and that history could then be subpoenaed and provide a trail for investigators to follow. It would be a technological challenge to protect the information from fraud or misuse but it would make a big dent in financial crime.