I read this article earlier today and started thinking about the best ways to allow people to send money to family and friends (outside of the US) without having to worry about the regulators trying to shut the service provider down for unknowingly supporting terrorist activity. It's a bit ironic that I found this article, because I just watched Inside Job (a documentary about the 2008 financial collapse) last night. It was a bit creepy seeing the same banks that caused the 2008 financial collapse trying to convince everyone that the tens of billions of dollars in annual transactions (that send US$ to other countries) are great for the American economy.
We need to build a website/app + debit card. People could deposit their cash by mailing it in a provided envelope or taking a photo of their check using the app. We could allow people to easily monitor their account, charge 4% for every transaction or $40 a month, and give account holders the option of ordering extra cards for $14 a card. No longer are people secretly transferring money to terrorists and drug lords. We would be allowing people to place money in accounts and share access with their family and friends. If it is thought that people are doing bad things with their money.. Regulators could easily verify, monitor, or even cancel accounts.
This would be cool as a business, but it would be even cooler if a congressman/ congresswoman/ senator stood up and presented this as a solution to our current scenario. There's obviously a lot missing from this to make it a perfect plan, but it's more of a solution than anyone in D.C. has provided. There would need to be security on every end (photos, addresses, phone numbers, et cetera). The debit cards would each need unique codes attached to them to make monitoring specific cards much more simple. This would quickly separate the bad people from the good people, because there wouldn't be a need to monitor accounts with several people attached to them.
This isn't a complete solution, but it would be a step in the right direction.