Remittances are a US$45 billion dollar industry. This large sum is substantial enough to attract the attention of public security and money laundering agencies around the world. In the 2003, the Inter-American Development Bank calculated that US$38 billion went to Latin America and the Caribbean. The figure for 2004 is US$45 billion. In the case of the Dominican Republic, remittances for 2003 totaled US$2.3 billion and estimates for 2004 are US$2.7 billion. In the Dominican Republic, two of every five adults receive financial assistance from somebody living outside the country. Remittances are the DR’s third most important hard currency generator. A couple of decades ago, according to the economic section of Sunday’s Hoy, remittances were only important to those sending and receiving them. Today, the incredible growth of the business has attracted wider attention. Recent newspaper coverage has concentrated on the fact that, on the one hand, local authorities are finding large amounts of money on couriers, as much as half a million dollars. On the other hand, remittance agencies are finding that banks in New York and elsewhere are making it harder for them to operate. Part of the problem is the attention given to money transferred within the drug cartels and money being used to fund terrorism. Recent legislation in the United States has spurred banks to tighten their controls.