4 Big Sources Of Revenue Help ISIS Make Millions Each Day

The Islamist terrorist group, which has taken control of the huge portions of Iraq and Syria, was called the richest in the world by Foreign Policy.

There are four big revenue streams for ISIS, listed by Zeit:

• Looting banks: Zeit notes that the Syrian central bank had $400 million in Mosul when ISIS took hold of the city, and that the savings of religious minority groups have been appropriated.
• Selling black market oil: ISIS makes a lot of money from selling oil on the black market: estimates have ranged from $270,000 (£172,450) to $3 million (£1.92 million) per day. There's a huge variation because experts can't be sure what the oil is sold for or how much ISIS can now produce after recent air strikes.
• Hostage-taking: ISIS has made at least $25 million (£15.97 million) from hostage ransoms this year. The true figure is likely much higher.
• Rent: ISIS took control of buildings formerly owned by the cities they conquer, and Zeit says they could be bringing in about $3 million each month.

And on the liabilities side, they've got some serious outgoings too:

• War wages: ISIS fighters apparently get something like $500 (£319.40) per month. Not much, but they do also get their share of the belongings and cash stolen from areas they attack.
• Government entities: It's not clear how much these cost, but they say they run public health facilities and an airport, which can't be cheap!

That's not even counting the non-pay costs of waging a war against a lot of different governments, militias and terrorist groups. So although ISIS is referred to as "the richest terrorist group in history", not everyone is convinced. Here's Zeit: