Abstract: Border trade plays an important role in Myanmar's economy, meanwhile the border area is the “arena” for contending powers among ethnic armed forces, Tatmadaw, and the NLD government. Money exchange and remittance shops are common informal financing forms in the border areas of Myanmar. How to promote the normalization of money exchange shops has been a difficult challenge to the Myanmar government in strengthening border management and state-building. In this case study of money exchange shops in Tachilek, “the City of Golden Triangle”, informal financial business is a node embedded in the local society of Tachilek and connects the state, various local authorities and ordinary people, and hence the border society with ambivalent illegal but licit trade networks has been build up. Through understanding “illegal” and “licit” in the context of Myanmar border, this paper reveals the underlying social cause of the difficulty to change informal financial forms, and deepens our understanding of the complicated situation on the Myanmar border.

Key words: informal financial business, border area of Myanmar, local society, money exchange shops